Media

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn will step down by the end of November and be replaced by her deputy Dan Pfeiffer, Fox News has learned.

Dunn's departure had been expected as she took the position on an interim basis earlier in the year. The White House had long said Dunn would leave before the end of 2009.

But her exit comes at a critical time for the White House, with the administration trying to push the Senate to follow the House of Representatives' lead in passing health care reform.

Dunn, who has been a vocal critic of Fox News and last month accused the network of being a "wing of the Republican Party," will remain as an outside consultant to the White House and continue to be involved in strategy...

A conservative media watchdog says it has become increasingly apparent that the only legitimate media coverage -- according to the Obama administration -- is news that praises the president.

Last week the Obama administration attempted to isolate and exclude the Fox News Channel by telling the White House media pool that it would make "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member except Fox News. But according to Fox News, the Washington bureau chiefs of the five TV networks consulted and decided that none of their reporters would interview Feinberg unless Fox was included...

(CNSNews.com) – Republicans say the Obama White House is engaging in “Chicago-style politics” by “demonizing” its opponents.

The pattern is familiar, said Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) at his weekly press briefing Thursday: “When you can’t win an argument based on the facts, launch vicious political attacks. This Chicago-style politics is shutting the American people out and demonizing their opponents.”

Boehner said Democrats are targeting those who don’t support their health care plans. Those targets include Fox News and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce...

Washington (AP) - White House advisers pledged on Sunday to book administration officials on Fox News despite claims by the president's inner circle that the cable network is a GOP mouthpiece whose programming "is geared toward making money."

Last week, White House communications director Anita Dunn said Fox News operates "almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, President Barack Obama's chief of staff, said, "It is not a news organization so much as it has a perspective."

In response to the criticism, Fox News executive Michael Clemente on Sunday accused the White House of continuing to "declare war on a news organization" rather than focusing on issues such as jobs and health care...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's new standards for government openness have not trickled down to some agencies, where officials have used special statutes slipped into bills to skirt the Freedom of Information Act, open government advocates said Wednesday.

Efforts to strengthen the 42-year-old law "have been hampered by the increasing use of legislative exemptions that are often sneaked into legislation without debate or public scrutiny," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy said.

News organizations and media groups said new legislation was needed to limit the information agencies may keep secret and for how long...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is sitting down for interviews with five television networks this afternoon, a highly unusual schedule even for a president who regularly uses the media to get his message across.

Obama will be taping interviews with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision that will be shown during the networks' Sunday morning talk shows. The only network missing from the lineup is Fox News, which has refused to carry Obama's last several prime time news conferences...

(CNSNews.com) - Rush Limbaugh, the self-professed man the mainstream media "love to hate," would have created a stir last week – if the media had actually taken notice.

Arbitron’s “Portable People Meter” (PPM) ratings for August were released last week and Limbaugh experienced record ratings in a number of major American radio markets.

According to broadcasting industry analyst Brian Maloney, Limbaugh had “blockbuster success” in some key cities, including Los Angeles -- home to the number one radio station in the country...

An organization that supports American troops and their families is appalled that The Associated Press published the photograph of a dying U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, against the wishes of his family.

On August 14, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade during a Taliban ambush in the Helmand province of southern Afghanistan. An AP photographer embedded with Bernard's unit photographed the Marine after he suffered severe leg injuries. He was evacuated to a field hospital where he later died on the operating table.

AP waited until after Bernard's funeral to distribute its story and the picture. An AP reporter met with Bernard's parents, allowing them to see the image. But when Bernard's father saw the photo, he opposed its publication, saying it was disrespectful to his son's memory...

A noted entertainment critic and author says Christians are making a difference when it comes to the availability of family-friendly movies.

Ted Baehr is president of MovieGuide, a magazine and Internet site offering in-depth reviews of movies from a biblical perspective. Baehr says the box-office success of recent movies such as Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and The Passion of the Christ have shown Hollywood executives there is a market for movies with a biblical worldview.

"The studios are fighting over [getting those] movies now -- and I get sent [release information about] one every couple of weeks," he shares. "It's fun getting other people's notices of the movies they brought out"...

If you tuned in to the soap "One Life to Live" this week, you may have noticed there's been a change of character. One character in particular.

Actress Patricia Mauceri says she was fired and abruptly replaced for objecting to a gay storyline because of her religious beliefs.

Mauceri played the recurring role of Carlotta Vega on "OLTL" for the last 14 years. But when she objected to how the writers wanted her deeply religious character, a Latina mother, to handle a storyline involving homosexuality, she objected. And for that she claims she was fired...