Obama Is Expensive, $30 Million Habit for TV Networks

(MoneyWatch)  The Hollywood Reporter is letting its readers in on a dirty secret about the TV-friendly Obama Administration, and now I'll let you in on it: President Obama and all his press conferences is costing the TV networks too much money, and they're not happy about it.

According to the story, Obama's three primetime press conferences have cost the nets, collectively, $30 million, so now they're seeing the decision by Fox last week to say thanks-but-no-thanks to airing a presidential conference as a precedent-setting move that could save all of them money. And you thought that Fox's real reasoning was that they didn't want to give Obama too much coverage, didn't you? Said one unidentified TV exec: " ... the Fox decision gives us cover to reject a request if we feel that there is no urgent breaking news that is going to be discussed."

The story also hints that all of the money the president has cost them is especially vexing because the media companies haven't received a bailout like banks, auto companies, and insurers. On that, the networks need a little bit of perspective. TV may be the opiate of the masses, but a backbone of the economy, it's not.