Fox News won the right to move up to the coveted front row space at White House briefings, according to a statement from the White House Correspondents Association, which decides the pecking order of press events.

Interestingly, in its announcement, the WHCA actually stated that Associated Press, already in the front row, would technically take the seat previously held by former Hearst scribe Helen Thomas, who resigned earlier this year. As the release tells it, Fox moves up to AP's former front-row seat and AP moves over to Thomas' old seat:

The board of the White House Correspondents Association has agreed, by consensus, to move the Associated Press to the front row, center seat in the James S. Brady Briefing Room.

The board further agreed to move Fox News to the front row seat previously occupied by AP, and relocate NPR into the second row seat previously held by Fox, next to Bloomberg News.

It was a very difficult decision. The board received requests from Bloomberg and NPR in addition to Fox for relocation to the front row and felt all three made compelling cases. But the board ultimately was persuaded by Fox's length of service and commitment to the White House television pool.

The careful wording is likely in reaction to the anger put forth by some who objected to Fox getting the front-row space. It even sparked campaigns by Working Assets, CREDO and MoveOn.org to deny the seat to Fox and instead give it to NPR.

All of this jockeying for position reminded me of that old Bob Uecker commercial about front row seats: