Two liberal groups are pushing against Fox News' request for a seat in the White House briefing room.

The decision to fill the front-row seat formerly held by UPI's Helen Thomas will be made Sunday by the White House Correspondents Association. Fox, NPR and Bloomberg News are the three most serious contenders for the spot.



CREDO Action, a mobile phone company that sponsors activist campaigns, started circulating an online petition Wednesday entitled 'Help NPR beat Fox.'



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"FOX News is a right-wing propaganda outlet, not a legitimate news agency," it reads. "It's bad enough that we have to fight the constant smear campaigns and appeals to racial paranoia from FOX and the right-wing media. We can't let them have the best seat in the White House press briefing room and the legitimacy that it confers."

MoveOn.org has since encouraged its members to support the petition, calling Fox News in a letter "a tool in the right-wing propaganda machine."

CREDO Action has said it has gathered more than 250,000 signatures since the petition launched.



NPR released a statement Friday to clarify that it has "no position on the petitions."

