Journos Lose It As White House Shatters Their Press Pool Monopoly
Suddenly the media cares about 'journalistic independence'
Remember, as you hear them whine about this announcement, exactly what they were like in the 4 years of Biden… and Trump, before him.
The crowd of the ‘free’ press has often shown its true colors by gleefully swallowing disreputable hoaxes (Russiagate, Russian bounties, Hunter’s laptop isn’t real etc) while refusing to acknowledge actual accomplishments (like the Abraham Accords) that would be genuinely historic if anyone NOT named Trump could be credited for them.
Contrast that to the Biden years when not a one of them said a peep about Biden’s obvious decline, or the pre-screened questions and scripted ‘pressers’ in which Biden routinely followed instructions written on his cue cards… to the letter. Often saying how he would be ‘in trouble’ if he deviated from pre-arranged plans.
The White House Press Corps has long been an incestuous little members-only club that jealously gate-kept which journos were serious enough to be included in their number. Not surprisingly, this group is so uniform in their beliefs as to be practically interchangeable.
No wonder they were upset when Trump’s PressSec told them the days of their Media Monopoly of the White House Access were coming to an end.
@PressSec announces changes to the “press pool” that covers President Trump:
“For decades, a group of D.C.-based journalists — the @WHCA — has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of @POTUS in these most intimate spaces. Not anymore.”
There is a longstanding practice of the Press Pool being self-selecting, but there is nothing in law or the Constitution that gives them preferential access to the President to which other journalists are not entitled.
This is an old boys’ club that goes back to the Coolidge administration… and like so many other old boys’ clubs, it has a tendency to be exclusionary and self-perpetuating.
Having seen the partisanship, showboating, and rampant misbehavior in recent years (looking at YOU Jim Acosta), it’s about time the old boys’ club is forced to update their membership rules to include people that would NOT be invited to their insufferable DC cocktail parties.
The meltdowns were entirely predictable:
OOPS, THIS didn’t go well for them:
But if Journos are going to be pissy about this decision, make sure they put the blame where it belongs:
The usual ‘end of democracy’ claims are being made in reply. But if you’re REALLY looking for somewhere to lay the finger of blame… look no further than the AP, whose lawsuit over access after getting rejected over the Gulf of America thing hinged directly upon membership in this exclusive club whose privileged access to the President has no actual justification in law or the Constitution.
Per Axios:
Zoom in: The White House said in a court filing Monday that news organizations’ access to the president is not “a constitutional right.”
Since AP mentioned its role in the press pool 52 times in its initial 18-page lawsuit, the White House decided to take over the function of picking the outlets in it, one White House adviser told Axios.
“The AP and the White House Correspondents Association wanted to f–k around. Now it’s finding out time,” per the adviser.
Maybe instead of whining about the rights your special access ought to convey, they should treat their special access to the President with the respect to the wider public that such access out to warrant, in reporting the news as it happens, rather than the preferred narrative as they are desperately trying to reframe and spin it.
If the old guard refuses to report the ACTUAL news, fresh faces will gladly take up that opportunity.
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