DAILY NEWS: We’re surprised he cleared Secret Service security, but Phawker.com editor Jonathan Valania was at the White House on Friday interviewing President Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, about his love of indie-rock veterans Guided By Voices. The interview is to appear in the October issue of Magnet. Like the local music magazine, which had been on hiatus, Guided By Voices is also back, after more than five years apart, and plays the Trocadero (1003 Arch) on July 6. Carney revealed his affinity for the Ohio-based Robert Pollard and his GBV cohorts last year. The interview was rescheduled a few times because of Carney’s schedule with more serious matters. “This is gonna be the fun part of my day,” Carney told Valania when he walked into his West Wing office, where the pair spent about a half-hour talking. “No middle fingers were given,” Valania said of his visit, referring to the brouhaha set off by South Philly photographer Zoe Strauss and fellow gay activist Matthew Hart when they recently visited the White House and tweeted pictures of themselves giving the finger to a portrait of President Ronald Reagan. MORE

TANGENTIALLY RELATED: F*ck You And The Ronald Reagan Painting You Rode In On

Photo by JONATHAN VALANIA

INQUIRER: Philadelphia Newspapers L.L.C. can bar its lenders from using $300 million in debt they are owed to try to purchase the company at auction next week, a federal judge ruled today. The decision by U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno reverses a ruling by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Raslavich. Lawyers for the company’s senior lenders — which include Angelo, Gordon & Co., the CIT Group, Wells Fargo and Eaton Vance (Citizens Bank put the deal together) — had argued that it would be unfair if they had to bid cash, like other potential buyers, for property that served as the collateral for their loan. They would, in effect, have to put up money to gain control of property on which they already had a lien. They contended that the bankruptcy code gave them the right to a credit bid. The company’s lawyer, Lawrence G. McMichael, contended that so-called credit bidding by the lenders would have a “chilling effect” on other bidders and could mean the company would not receive a fair return for its sale. McMichael argued that the bankruptcy statutes included a provision for such a sale without the lenders’ having the right to credit-bid. Robreno ruled that McMichael was right, that the company’s plan, without credit bidding, would meet the requirements of the bankruptcy code by providing lenders “the indubitible equivalent” of collateral being sold. MORE

TRANSLATION: In other words, the people that loaned Tierney and Co. $318 million to buy the Inquirer/DN cannot use that still-unpaid loan as part of their bid to buy the bankrupt papers which go up for auction November 18th. Bids must be cash-only, and the judge’s ruling leaves Tierney and Co. as the highest bidder, as of this writing. Stay tuned.

PREVIOUSLY: Tierney & Co. Add $20M To Their Bid For Inky/DN

PREVIOUSLY: Bankruptcy Judge’s Ruling Makes It Unlikely Tierney & Co. Will Retain Ownership of The Inquirer/Daily News