The White House is stripping the White House Correspondents’ Association of its role in managing the White House Press Pool, taking control of deciding who will be a part of the small rotating group of journalists and photographers who accompany the president.
The press pool includes rotating representatives from television, print, radio, wire services and still photography outlets that travel with the president on Air Force One and in other small settings like the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room. They communicate information back to their counterparts at other outlets through what’s known as pool reports disseminated by email.
Since the 1950s, the independent WHCA, made up of representatives from hundreds of different outelts, has managed who is part of the rotation (in coordination with the White House). That now will change, Leavitt said.
“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at Tuesday’s press briefing.
Leavitt added, “Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the […]
This is excellent news! For far too long the White House press pool have been nothing more than stenographers to power showing little critical thinking, being unquestioning of official narrative, and jockeying for access to get the poop ( err…scoop), that administration officials dish out often on “background” and unattributed. My hope is that this type of action will cause the press to engage in skeptical independent thought. If this occurs you will see a revolution in coverage which will go beyond the factually isolated, non-historical, coverage which passes for journalism in this country. A true journalistic endeavor will provide context and a historical background to allow the reader to understand what they are hearing and seeing. This cannot occur in 30 second sound bites. Get historical context, and you start thinking outside the box. It is radical indeed.
And, as if this isn’t bad enough, look what Bezos did with WaPo—no more editorials that criticize or discuss politics! Whaaattttt????? If I subscribed to that, I would dump them in a heartbeat!