WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama has scheduled his first Rose Garden news conference.

The White House on Monday said Obama would take questions from reporters at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Obama has previously engaged in formal news conferences during prime-time television hours and on international trips. This would be his first extended questioning in the White House’s Rose Garden.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama would open the session with remarks on health care reform, energy legislation and Iran’s disputed elections.

WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama plans a prime-time news conference next week.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says Obama will answer questions in the East Room on Wednesday, beginning at 8 p.m. EDT.

It will be Obama’s third prime-time news conference.

The president held his first news conference in February, followed by a second in March.

By WALT BELCHER
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE

The TV sets in the White House may not be tuned to Fox News Channel, but the favorite channel of the previous administration is riding high in the age of Obama.

So far this year, the network with the “fair and balanced” motto has widened its lead over its 24-hour cable news rivals, averaging more viewers in prime time than CNN and MSNBC combined.

Since Barack Obama took office, the network’s prime-time average is up 30 percent over last year, and the network’s 6 p.m. “Special Report with Bret Baier” is up 42 percent.

CNN has seen its audience drop from the highs seen last year during the hotly contested presidential race. And MSNBC, which enjoyed gains by emphasizing liberal commentators such a Rachel Maddow, isn’t growing as fast as FNC.

“The conventional wisdom among some liberal pundits was that Fox News would be in decline with this new administration, but we are thriving,” says Jay Wallace, vice president of News Editorial at Fox News Channel.

Hard Times Drive Ratings
Apparently those pundits didn’t take into account the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, which has fueled viewer interest in news.

Bill Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News, has said that because Obama is still enjoying a honeymoon with other media, viewers are turning to Fox, where his policies are met with skepticism.

“The economy is driving the ratings, and we are asking the tough questions,” Wallace says. “Our viewers appreciate that.”

Anchor Baier adds that while conservative viewers tune to the network’s opinionated talk shows, viewers of all political persuasions are coming to the newscasts, which he says are nonpartisan.

“We do try to be fair and balanced,” says Baier, who replaced semi-retired conservative anchor Brit Hume.

“We are straight down the middle on all of our news programs,” Baier says. “Viewers are concerned about their wallets in these uncertain times. And people on both sides of the political aisle are coming to us to get the whole story.”

Conservative Celebrities Drive Ratings, Too
Liberal MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann was one who predicted that Fox News Channel would do well with a Democrat in office.

During his Super Bowl visit to Tampa last month, Olbermann said Fox’s conservative pundits now have someone and something to rail against.

Much of Fox News’s overall ratings success comes from a trio of successful conservative talk shows hosted by Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly (who celebrates his 100th month as most-watched cable news host on Thursday).

On his blog, O’Reilly notes that “62 million Americans voted against Mr. Obama … folks who are uneasy with the direction of the country are not going to watch or read product from news organizations that are in the tank for Barack Obama.”

But Fox’s overall audience isn’t just conservative, though that may be the perception, because even Obama has joked that watching the network makes him feel bad about himself.

A recent study of viewers’ politics conducted by Pew Research Center found that Fox has the most balanced audience at 39 percent conservative, 33 percent liberal and 22 percent independent.

The CNN audience was 18 percent conservative, 51 percent liberal and 23 percent independent, while MSNBC’s viewers were 18 percent conservative, 45 percent liberal and 27 independent.

At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media, Politico reports.

Are you keeping up with the latest from Washington? Test yourself with our weekly political pop quiz. Remember, what you do not know can hurt you. Good luck!

1) Who did Republicans tap to give the response to President Barack Obama’s address to Congress?

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist

2) President Obama put on hold a plan to update what form of presidential transportation?

The Marine One fleet of helicopters
The Air Force One fleet of jets
The fleet of presidential limousines
The presidential yacht

3) Michelle Obama told People magazine the family plans to adopt what breed of dog?

A labradoodle
A basset hound
An Irish wolfhound
A Portuguese water dog

4) The House voted Tuesday to ban people from owning what animals as pets?

Pit Bulls
Poisonous snakes
Primates
Elephants

5) Who is President Obama’s most recent pick for Commerce secretary?

Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire
Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson
Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine

6) Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl’s office was the scene of a minor disturbance Tuesday afternoon.  What was all the fuss about?

Arizona resident Alice Cooper stopped by, followed by a horde of screaming fans
An armadillo brought in by a constituent escaped
Kyl’s fireplace backed up, sending smoke into the hallway
The Arizona Cardinals cheerleaders did a routine outside his office

7) This governor was the only governor to sit in  first lady Michelle Obama’s box during the president’s address to Congress.

North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland
Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley

8) Who did the president say “nobody messes with” with during his address to Congress?

Vice President Joe Biden
Himself
First Lady Michelle Obama
Texas

9) Which of the following was not invented in America, as the president claimed during his address to Congress?

The automobile
Air conditioning
Space shuttle
Phonograph

10) The Supreme Court ruled last week that a religious sect in Utah could not force…

Schools to teach its beliefs
A city to put a monument in a public park
Children to live in their compound
Its members to commit suicide

Answers:

1.) B  Jindal said the Democrats are putting their trust in the government to fix the economy, while the GOP trusts the American people.

2.) A  The price of the proposed new fleet of 28 helicopters was more than $11 billion.  Obama said the current helicopters are “perfectly adequate.”

3.) D  The first lady  said the Obamas hope to adopt a dog from an animal rescue organization in April.

4.) C  The Captive Primate Safety Act was the result of a recent chimpanzee attack in Connecticut.

5.) B  Locke is the president’s third pick to  lead the Commerce department, following the withdrawals of Richardson and Gregg.

6.) C  Staffers in  Kyl’s office apparently did not operate the flue on the fireplace correctly, sending smoke billowing into the Capitol hallway.

7.) C  Strickland joined a South Carolina student, a Virginia firefighter and others in the box.

8.) A  Obama said he asked Biden to oversee recovery package spending because “nobody messes with Joe.”

9.) A The first true, gasoline powered automobile was built in Germany.

10.) B  The group, Summum, wanted to place a monument to the Seven Aphorisms of its faith next to a monument of the Ten Commandments.

How did you do?
If you were a candidate, here is how you would fare:
1 — Politics isn’t your game
2 — Perhaps you don’t have any advisers.
3 — You should fire your advisers.
4 — Your advisers didn’t prepare you very well.
5 — With preparation, you could be a winner.
6 — You’ve got potential — you got 50 percent of your facts right.
7 — With preparation, you’d lead comfortably.
8 — You’ve got a good foundation to build on.
9 — Majority rules!
10 — You’re unanimously elected!

General Assembly members attended a briefing Wednesday on the financial challenges of the state employee health insurance plan.

They learned the Legislature may have to find another $1 billion over the next two years to meet the claims of the plan’s 667,000 members. State employees and retirees also may have to pay more in the form of 31 percent premium increases over the same period or in reduced coverage.

The amounts don’t include an additional $300 million needed by this spring because the plan is in danger of running out of money.

Lawmakers on Tuesday heard about the state’s broader budget problems.

North Carolina residents believe there has been more mudslinging and negative campaigning this election season than in previous years, although most say political ads have not been helpful in selecting a candidate to endorse, according to the latest Elon University Poll. 
 
Fifty-nine percent of North Carolinians say this election has been more negative than past contests and 90 percent report having seen negative ads. Despite this, 64 percent of residents who viewed negative television ads say those ads were “not at all effective” in influencing which candidate to support.
 
“Thrust into the national spotlight with very competitive elections, the state has seen its airwaves flooded with campaign advertisements,” said Hunter Bacot, director of the Elon University Poll. “But North Carolinians don’t believe everything they see and hear.”
 
Residents said the Republican Party has been more negative in the race for the White House with 25 percent identifying the McCain-Palin campaign as “too negative or nasty” compared with 8 percent for the Obama-Biden ticket.  Sixty-nine percent of residents feel the overall tone of political ads in North Carolina have been negative.
 
Negative impressions of three major contests are indicated below:

Presidential: McCain/Palin (50 percent), Obama/Biden (30 percent)
Senatorial: Elizabeth Dole (48 percent), Kay Hagan (38 percent)
Gubernatorial: Pat McCrory (21 percent), Bev Perdue (30 percent)
 
Seventy-nine percent of residents feel they received enough information to make an informed vote this year. The outlets where people reported gaining most of their election information were as follows (respondents could provide more than one answer):
 
Local television news: 53 percent
Local newspapers: 38 percent
Internet: 37 percent
Cable television news: 36 percent
National network television news: 29 percent

WASHINGTON – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin repeatedly failed to cite a newspaper or magazine when asked what she had read regularly before John McCain picked her as his running mate, saying only that she had read “most of them.”

Palin also said that she doesn’t believe that the media’s coverage of her has been sexist. “It would be sexist if the media were to hold back and not ask me about my experience, my vision, my principles, my values,” said Palin, Alaska’s governor.
 
In an interview aired Tuesday on “The CBS Evening News,” anchor Katie Couric asked Palin what publications she had read to stay informed and to understand the world.

“I’ve read most of them, again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media,” Palin replied. Asked for examples, she said, “Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me all these years.”

Asked again for an example, Palin told Couric: “I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news, too. Alaska isn’t a foreign country, where it’s kind of suggested, ‘Wow, how could you keep in touch with what the rest of Washington, D.C., may be thinking when you live up there in Alaska?’ Believe me, Alaska is like a microcosm of America.”

In remarks aired Wednesday on CBS’ “The Early Show,” Palin told Couric that she thinks media coverage of her has been guided not by sexism but by the fact that she isn’t “part of the Washington herd.” While she sees some double-standards in media coverage, Palin said she believes it’s more attributable to the “media elite, the Washington elite” not knowing who she is than her gender.

Palin has only agreed to a handful of interviews by major news media since joining the GOP ticket nearly five weeks ago and has not held a news conference.

Asked Tuesday by radio host Hugh Hewitt if she agreed that interviews with ABC’s Charles Gibson and CBS’ Couric were designed to embarrass her, Palin replied: “Well, I have a degree in journalism also, so it surprises me that so much has changed since I received my education in journalistic ethics all those years ago.”

She continued: “But I’m not going to pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrelful. I’m going to take those shots and those pop quizzes and just say that’s OK, those are good testing grounds. And they can continue on in that mode. That’s good. That makes somebody work even harder. It makes somebody be even clearer and more articulate in their positions. So really I don’t fight it. I invite it.”

Palin has been spending the last few days at McCain’s ranch in Sedona, Ariz., preparing for her debate Thursday night with Democratic rival Joe Biden, Barack Obama’s running mate.

Although Palin told Couric on Monday that she didn’t have a “debate coach,” the campaign said she is getting advice from McCain’s top campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, and campaign advisers Tucker Eskew, Nicolle Wallace and Mark Wallace.

“I have quite a few people who are giving us information about the record of Obama and Biden, and at the end of the day, though, it is – it’s so clear, again, what those choices are. Either new ideas, new energy and reform of Washington, D.C., or more of the same,” Palin said.

According to an article from BusinessWeek, the Web is engaging voters like never before.