On today's episode of Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace complained that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates appeared on ABC, CBS, and NBC but not Fox. It's an old refrain for Wallace, who has bitterly reacted to previous snubs by calling the White House petty children and “the biggest bunch of crybabies I have dealt with in my 30 years in Washington.”

But the Obama administration has ample cause to snub Fox News and its Sunday program.

Following Obama's election, Fox News executives declared the network the “voice of the opposition” and “the Alamo.” During the 2010 midterm elections, Fox News served as a de facto wing of the Republican Party. Bill Sammon, Fox's vice president of news and Washington managing editor, has been repeatedly caught slanting news to the right.

Countless Fox News programs - both from the “opinion” and “news” sides - have fabricated smears and adopted GOP talking points against the White House. Fox News Sunday is no exception: In August 2009, Wallace promoted the smear that the Department of Veterans Affairs was pushing veterans to “pull the plug.”

The White House, in turn, has said that Fox News is “really not news” and President Obama said the network “has a very clear, undeniable point of view” that “is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth” of the country. Despite the White House's low opinion of Fox News, there hasn't been a complete boycott. Clinton and Gates have made repeated appearances on Fox News Sunday (Clinton most recently appeared on January 30 to discuss Egypt) and Bill O'Reilly interviewed President Obama on Superbowl Sunday.

In making the case today that Obama officials should have appeared on Fox News Sunday, Wallace pointed to his viewership, claiming that his program has “more viewers than two of those Sunday shows.” That calculation notwithstanding - as TVNewser notes, without cable replays, FNS is actually fourth - Wallace presumes Fox should be treated as a legitimate news organization.

It certainly has yet to act like one. Instead of complaining about the White House's treatment of his one-hour weekly program, Wallace should direct criticism where it belongs: at Fox News colleagues like Bill Sammon and his own program.