For generations, the White House Correspondents' Association has been in charge of who gets into the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room and where they sit. But the Association's days as gatekeeper are ending. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (pictured) said on Tuesday while the usual five television networks (ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News, and NBC News) will remain part of the rotation for the press pool …
Leavitt: "We're going to expand the pool's access to the president to non-traditional journalists. Legacy media will still have a seat just like they still have a seat in our briefing room, but we're going to bring new voices into the fold."
Eugene Daniels is president of the White House Correspondents' Association. The White House's decision, he said in a statement, "tears at the independence of a free press in the United States."
"It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president," Daniels added. "In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps."
Leavitt added: "We want more outlets and new outlets to have a chance to take part in the press pool to cover this administration's unprecedented achievements up close, front and center …. 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."
Already news outlets like Breitbart, The Daily Wire, and various podcasters and streaming services are in the room and posing questions. But one major news service – The Associated Press – won't be in the press pool anytime soon. President Trump kicked them out because they refuse to call the former "Gulf of Mexico" by its new name … and AP sued in response.
Bill D'Agostino of Media Research Center says a federal judge has refused to reinstate the AP – for now. "Nobody is entitled to a spot in the briefing room," he tells AFN.
He notes AP and other legacy outlets have a strong left-leaning bias – and a history of bashing Trump.
"These are also the kind of people who probably were thrilled when [President] Obama changed Mount McKinley to Mount Denali," he illustrates. "In a way, it's sort of an American humiliation ritual, right? It's like a Marxist struggle session for the country."
