White House Shuffle: AP Gets Thomas’s Old Seat & Fox News To Front Row

Helen Thomas and President Obama

* The White House Correspondents Association has reportedly reached a decision on who gets Helen Thomas’s much-coveted briefing room seat.

AP moves to Helen’s center seat, Fox to AP’s front-row seat, NPR to 2nd row.

Mediaite.com writes:

It’s an interesting shuffle and no doubt some speculation will go into why Fox, who pushed hard for Thomas’s seat, was not in the end totally successful.

That said, they have been moved up to the front row (a scenario Tommy Christopher predicted back in June). Says the Upshot’s Michael Calderone: “The idea of moving the AP – which normally gets the first question at presidential press conferences – was under discussion in recent years, long before Thomas retired.”

Read more HERE.