The Post and the White House are embroiled in a conflict about the freedom of the press … this time at issue is the White House’s annual holiday video featuring President Bush’s dog, Barney. This year the White House had decided to distribute the popular holiday “Barneycam” video to television stations for free, but not news websites, insisting instead they link to the White House site. Last year’s video drew 24 million viewers to the White House website.

CNET reported in November that Doug Fever, executive editor of WashingtonPost.com, has written a letter of protest accusing the White House of discrimininating against online news sites. We don’t know what kind of reply he recieved, but on the 15th the Post went ahead and posted a copy of the video anyway with the headline “White House Releases Barney Video.”

No word yet on what Barney thinks of the controversy.