Imtimidating the press

It looks like Tony Snow has decided to take a hard nosed approach to his job. It's no longer to hold press briefings to inform the public (there haven't been any yet), it's to threaten the press when they don't tell the story the way the White House wants them to. He's already sent off critical letters to CBS, the New York Times, and USA Today for not reporting stories the way they would be reported on Faux News. The implied threat, of course, is to be denied access to the White House. The story is here:

Snow has fired off several emails to reporters. One rapped the Times for continuing to “ignore America’s economic progress,” while another hit USA Today for a “misleading Medicare story.” He also knocked CBS News on Wednesday for Jim Axelrod’s piece on seniors having problems with the Bush drug plan. Axelrod responded today.

Looks as though we will probably end up with a whole bunch of Faux clones. Of course, to a large degree, that's what we already have.