Kilmeade, Johnson criticize the White House for not holding a press conference since July

From the February 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

KILMEADE: President Obama hasn't had a full scale news conference since July. And now, many members of the White House press corps are asking why.

GIBBS [video clip]: We have done countless number of interviews, I think more interviews in the first year than any president certainly in recent memory. He enjoys the format. We just haven't done one in a while.

KILMEADE: OK, is the president trying to avoid the White House press corps? Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. has been here and has been talking about this before. Peter, what would be the tactic to not doing a news conference when you've already given so many -- press conference -- when you've already given so many one-on-one interviews?

JOHNSON: The tactic is to avoid hard questions and the tactic is to avoid hard follow-up questions. If you go on YouTube and you post photos on Flickr and you have deputy White House press secretaries send little Twitter messages and then you post White House videos and you say that's the same thing as answering a question from Wendell Goler at the White House from Fox News, it's not. It's the give and take and it's part of American history for the last century. This period -- seven months is the longest period that we've had in 10 years of the presidency. We've gone seven months without a press conference by the president.

KILMEADE: Because right now, this is what the administration says, look at our first year stats. First year interviews, President Obama, 161. President Bush just 50. President Clinton, 53. Is it -- does it have anything to do -- is the reason that the president have avoided the press conferences, anything to do with what happened last time in July when he did one?

JOHNSON: Well, I think it was July 22nd, he said that the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police department acted stupidly with regard to the situation.

But Fox Broadcasting refused to air both Obama's April and July press conferences

Fox Broadcasting Co. declined to air April press conference. The Associated Press reported on April 28, 2009, that “Fox became the first broadcast network to turn down a request by President Barack Obama for time, opting to show its drama 'Lie to Me' on Wednesday instead of the president's prime-time news conference. Fox will direct viewers interested in the news conference to Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network, which will both carry it." Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace later said that Fox News was “boycotted” because Obama didn't call on its reporter and that Fox was “right” to not air it.

Fox Broadcasting Co. declined to air July press conference. According to Mediabistro's TVNewser blog, Fox Broadcasting Co. declined to air Obama's July 22, 2009, press conference, instead opting to “alert viewers with an on-screen graphic at the top of the 8:00 PM (ET) hour that the press conference is available on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network.” Fox reportedly opted to air its regularly scheduled program, “So You Think You Can Dance,” instead.

Fox News hosts and guests repeatedly complained that Obama was “overexposed”

Fox “All Star Panel”: “Is the president overexposed?” Two days after Obama's July 22, 2009, press conference, during the “All Star Panel” of Fox News' Special Report, host Bret Baier asked: “Is the president overexposed? Is he out there too much?” In response to Baier, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer stated: “He's overexposed. He's a great rock star, but even rock stars can outstay their welcome. He should only go out there on his own when he has something new to say and dramatic. He didn't. I think it's -- the faith he has in his own eloquence, it's larger than the reality of his own influence.” [Special Report, 07/24/09]

Cavuto guest says presser makes Obama “overexposed.” On the July 24, 2009, edition of Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto said: “This whole thing kind of reminds me, though, of Regis [Philbin], you know? At first, that whole Millionaire show franchise, that looked huge. Once it started popping up every night, then it wasn't so huge, was it?” Cavuto's guest, public relations consultant Fraser Seitel, went on to assert that Obama is “starting to get overexposed. He's on television. It's all Obama all the time.” [Your World, 07/24/09]

S.E. Cupp: "President Obama has lost his influence. He is overexposed." On the August 13, 2009, edition of Fox News' Hannity, host Sean Hannity agreed after conservative commentator S.E. Cupp said “unfortunately, President Obama has lost his influence. He is overexposed. He is too many places at too many times.”

Fox News Sunday guests agree that Obama is overexposed. On the September 20, 2009, edition of Fox News Sunday, Wallace noted the “remarkable number of interviews that Barack Obama has given so far in his young presidency,” and asked Fox News Contributor Brit Hume “what is President Obama getting for all that exposure?” Hume said, “less and less,” and that he “risks overexposure.”

Dick Morris: "[H]e's obviously overexposed." On the September 21, 2009, edition of Hannity, Fox News contributor Dick Morris said Obama is “obviously overexposed but it's like Bush giving the same speech about Iraq. People just stopped listening at some point,” to which Hannity replied: “Yes.”

Hannity: Do Obama interviews make him “overexposed?” Later on the September 21, 2009, show, Hannity said to Republican pollster Frank Luntz: “Is Barack Obama-- and I'll ask you, through the prism of this analysis, that up to this point in this presidency, Bill Clinton did about 46 interviews, Bush about 40, Obama 124. Overexposed?” Luntz replied: “It's like penicillin. The first time that you use it, it has 100 percent impact. Each time you use it, it becomes less effective as the body develops immunity to it.”