It’s unusual enough these days to qualify as a man-bites-dog story, but in the Obama White House war on Fox News, four other MSM TV networks finally got something right. The administration tried to knock Fox out of a pool interview Thursday with White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. The networks closed ranks and told the administration they would refuse the interview unless Fox was included. Credit to CNN, NBC/MSNBC, ABC and CBS.

In the assault by America’s own government on America’s freedoms, that’s a skirmish won for free speech. But then we get to the story the networks were trying to cover, before the administration’s attempt to exile Fox turned the pool coverage itself into a story.  The interview was full of bad news for free markets. A Wall Street Journal editorial today sums it up: “Our New Paymasters: Wage controls are politically easier than genuine reforms.” The government bails out, regulates, and then decides who may get paid how much. The Journal correctly concludes: “Once politicians feel free to regulate executive pay for one industry, it is no great leap to do it for everyone.”