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White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Trump White House would henceforth determine which reporters would be part of the press pool and allowed into the Oval Office and Air Force One. Previously, the elitist White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) had made those selections.
“As you all know, for decades, a group of DC-based journalists, the White House Correspondents’ Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore,” Ms. Leavitt said at a press briefing late last month. “I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch your television shows, and who listen to your radio stations. Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team.”
While not excluding legacy media outlets from continuing to be represented in the small press pools, the plan announced by Press Secretary Leavitt is to add “additional streaming services” and other outlets that had been previously “denied access.”
This announcement followed the White House’s decision to revoke Associated Press’s access to President Trump in the Oval Office and Air Force One. The AP had refused to change its stylebook entry for the “Gulf of Mexico” to the “Gulf of America,” which is the new name that President Trump gave to this body of water. A federal judge denied AP’s motion for an emergency order immediately restoring its press pool access privileges but scheduled a more extensive hearing on March 20th. AP’s reporters and photographers still retain their White House press passes and access to White House briefings.
The White House Correspondents’ Association reacted furiously to its loss of the exclusive privilege to pick who among themselves is allowed into the Oval Office and Air Force One as part of the press pool. The WHCA issued an absurd self-serving statement denouncing the White House’s new press pool policy as a “move” that “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.” In the WHCA’s insular world, giving non-traditional media outlets opportunities to be a part of the press pool, along with legacy media outlets, and to ask the president their own questions directly is somehow destructive of a free press.
It turns out that the legacy media are all for inclusivity except when their own exclusive privileged status is adversely affected.
The president of the United States is free to choose whom to invite into the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One. Freedom of the press does not mean that an exclusive club of White House correspondents gets to decide as a constitutional right which journalists have such privileged access. Indeed, the president does not have to invite any journalists at all into these more intimate spaces.
The media outlets that are not included in the press pool on any given day receive feeds and notes from the press pool participants immediately, which they can use as they wish. The Trump administration has not imposed restrictions on what content the pool participants send out to other media outlets or restrictions on what the media can publish.
Moreover, White House correspondents from the legacy media outlets, including the AP, can still attend and participate in all regular press briefings, which now have seats added in the briefing room for less traditional outlets as well.
President Trump has been more accessible to the media than any other president in modern history, despite all the biased and misleading reporting directed against him. This is in stark contrast to his predecessor Joe Biden, who hid from the press as much as he could. Mr. Biden’s handlers selected the journalists who were allowed to ask him questions during the few formal press conferences that Biden held, and they provided him with cheat sheets. Nevertheless, many members of the Washington press corps treated Joe Biden with kid gloves and helped enable the scandalous coverup of his cognitive decline for years.
The Biden White House also arbitrarily took away what are called “hard” press passes from 422 reporters. These passes had allowed them extended regular access to White House press briefings and to the White House grounds. The White House Correspondents’ Association was radio silent. There was no WHCA statement claiming that the Biden administration had torn at the independence of a free press when it stripped 422 reporters of their hard press passes. The WHCA “has taken an officially noncommittal stance,” according to the Washington Post.
The Trump administration is working to restore those passes which the Biden administration had arbitrarily revoked. More generally, President Trump’s openness to answering barrages of questions from the press, including blatantly hostile ones, on numerous occasions for extensive periods of time is staggering.
But the White House Correspondents’ Association and its leftwing members are recklessly pushing the false narrative that the Trump administration is suppressing freedom of the press. As Miranda Devine wrote in her February 27th New York Post column, “the WHCA and its members have lost the right to pose as guardians of free speech.”
Don’t worry WHCA. You will still get to ask your insufferable “gotcha questions”. But you will have to phone them in from the White House lawn,,,,,even while standing in the rain, or on a hot muggy summer day.
Just think, we haven’t had the Sitting Bhudda Helen Thomas, the pro muslim, Jew hating journalist for many years. The Lord finally didst smite her. And now the mini Sitting Bhuddas are out as well.
Thank you God for turning Trump’s head in Butler PA last July.
Did you know the White House Correspondents Association is an actual government agency? That’s how corrupt “our” government and the D-Bags have been. President Trump is a living exterminator of pathogens and vermin, and they hate him.
Even better, Trump is not afraid to be openly contemptuous of the media and is often hostile with members of the left wing media (and congress!)
Trump is no one’s punk and is not inclined to show deference towards members of the media who openly despise him. In layman’s terms: throw sh*t at Trump and he’ll throw it back at you. That’s a characteristic of an alpha male.
And that’s why we love him. But Demonrats didn’t learn from the election we stopped watching mainstream media years ago they’re just propaganda for the Left. We’re no longer brainwashed sheep we’re awake. We’re sick of mainstream medias lies about Trump but cover for Biden. I hope they continue to flounder let’s shut them down completely. As well as vote every Demonrat out of office. We’re sick of their lies and not working with President Trump. Let’s vote their asses out of office.
Why hasn’t Trump given that “liberal rag” the Wall Street Journal the boot? C’mon, Jeff! I know you can give us an entertaining response.
There’s only ONE Response for a leading, leftwing “gotcha” question : “Oh come on now, does it really matter what the truth is? We know you’re going to report it the way you imagine it should be! Next question”!!
No need to show much respect for the leftists so be UP FRONT and just tell them that they’ve had at least sixteen years of free reign and now it’s over and more deserving voices need to be heard!
You say: “White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the Trump White House would henceforth determine which reporters would be part of the press pool and allowed into the Oval Office and Air Force One.” The Wicked Witch of The West in “The Wizard of Oz” could have been offering a rejoinder to Ms. Leavitt on behalf of the rejected legacy media harpies when she said: “You cursed brat! Look what you’ve done! I’m melting! melting! Oh, what a world! What a world! Who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness? Oooooh, look out! I’m going! Oooooh! Ooooooh!” …Next question?
How about when Obammy had James Rosen investigated by the FBI for reporting on an issue. Where were these lowlife White House Correspondents Association then. Nothing but Crickets.
i have never understood why these propagandists are allowed into the white house to ask banal drivel . they dont ask intelligent thought provoking questions but pre prepared idiocy . why would you waste your time believing that they serve a purpose . they will print lies and avoid the facts and make the don look bad regardless . kick them all out and let them continue to print what they want you to hear . im sure leavitt can find more meaningful things to do with her time . dealing with the MSM morons is just tedium that americans are well past interested in .
The Mass Media types, or as it has been, *The Legacy Media* is all beside themselves because they are to be picked by President Trump, and the White House Press Secretary. The old school White House Press Corps simply does Not like the fact they do Not have their long standing *Cart-Bloch* with regard to is extending the *Privilege*,”Not A Right” to be allowed mind you, to enter the White House Press Briefing Room, and or Air Force One! Do remember media types, that is a :”Privilege” extended to you media types, and Not a right for any of you to be on the Grounds of the White House, and or in the White House Press Briefing Room, and especially, you folks of OUR Country’s mass media, “Do NOT Ever” have the right to be aboard Air Force One, without President Trump’s personal approval…Thank you…
Why are so few impressed that we now have a leader who can answer questions off the cuff? And many hostile ones at that? Amazing. I will admit that I’m a bit of an oddball 4 a theater artist because I have a fairly unique perspective after having spent 2 yrs making my way around the world & I can tell you it wasn’t to do research for a career in theater. No, I was a young lost soul/vagabond after the Woodstock dream of utopian socialism faded & who felt not knowing where I would put my head that night many, many times would be a challenge & a rite of passage into this new unforgiving world. 1 thing it showed me was the value of a life in the U.S. : our pragmatism, freedom of expression etc. So I returned – after leaving as a V.N. war protestor ending up in the S.E.Asia war zone – and returning (horror of horrors) as something of a patriot. Yes, it’s true. My pt is that IMHO I find it refreshing to see a leader – whether you disagree with him or not- able to express himself in front of a room of hostile reporters. (only Nixon could do that – Reagan was just good at reading). So I’m dismayed more people don’t get how comforting it is to see a leader able to shoot from the hip. Just to be clear – I’m not some eccentric but am able to say I’ve worked w/Miller & Mailer for extended pds of time. It came to me recently that one of my younger actors allowed ‘you’re controversial, you know’ – maybe true but this is America & there still is some freedom so you don’t have to just ‘go along’. Nobody knocking on my door but that’s the price you pay for seats down front at the show.
Art Director
The Great American Play Series