For those who work outside of journalism, the idea of a “press pool” might be unfamiliar. The basic idea, however, is straightforward: When a president holds an event in a small location — aboard Air Force One or in the Oval Office, for example — there’s a limited number of journalists who can realistically report on what happens.
So, news organizations agree to pool their resources and rely on a small number of media professionals who cover the events, with the understanding that their reporting will be shared with other news outlets.
For several decades, the White House Correspondents’ Association has determined which journalists serve in the daily pool. As NBC News reported, Team Trump has settled on a new model.
The White House says it will decide which reporters are permitted to participate in the presidential pool in a move that will break from decades of precedent. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said [Tuesday] that the White House Correspondents Association would no longer get to say “which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States” at certain events.
“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,” Leavitt told reporters. It was a curious boast that appeared to have no real resemblance to reality: The only people who will have “the power” under the new White House policy are those who work at the White House.
White House Correspondents’ Association President Eugene Daniels swiftly condemned Leavitt’s comments, saying in a statement that the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.”
That’s true. It’s also the latest in a series of steps that tear at the independence of a free press in the United States. As NBC News’ report added, “The Trump administration has also broken from tradition by calling on members of the media whose outlets do not have dedicated seats in the White House briefing room, and it removed major media organizations — including NBC News — from their long-standing dedicated spots at the Pentagon. In their places, Trump officials have given spots to newer outlets, including many that lean conservative.”
There’s also, of course, Team Trump’s decision to punish the Associated Press for referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the president’s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register for publishing the results of a poll Trump didn’t like.
Not surprisingly, many journalists were not pleased with the idea that the White House will decide which journalists will be rewarded with access. In fact, The New York Times’ Peter Baker noted via social media, “Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.” Baker added, “The message is clear. Given that the White House has already kicked one news organization out of the pool because of coverage it does not like, it is making certain everyone else knows that the rest of us can be barred too if the president does not like our questions or stories. Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn’t pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions. Trump has just declared that he will.” For his part, the president himself declared, when asked about the new pool policy, “We’re gonna be now calling those shots.” In a country that takes the First Amendment seriously, that’s not how this is supposed to work. There’s little evidence, however, that Trump cares.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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