On the White House Briefing Room

From the WHCA Board:

We’re aware of new reports indicating the White House is considering taking over the briefing room seat assignments and want to underscore what we’re doing and what we believe.

The White House should abandon this wrong-headed effort and show the American people they’re not afraid to explain their policies and field questions from an independent media free from government control.

But if the White House pushes forward, it will become even more clear that the administration is seeking to cynically seize control of the system through which the independent press organizes itself, so that it is easier to exact punishment on outlets over their coverage.

The reason the White House wants control of the briefing room is the same reason they took control of the pool: to exert pressure on journalists over coverage they disagree with. This was explicit with The Associated Press, where the president and his staff plainly said their removal from covering presidential events was punishment for their style guide. And their motives here are explicit again.

The administration has sought to obscure that fact by suggesting that they are ushering in new media outlets that are somehow excluded from the WHCA.

Our organization has always been and will always be open to professional outlets covering the White House, and we’ve evolved over more than a century to reflect the changes in our press corps. For instance, of the 296 news organization WHCA members, 45 are digital-only, 29 are “new media” founded since 2000, and 29 are local U.S. outlets hailing from 18 different states.

The WHCA has added dozens of new outlets to our ranks over the last two decades and as new media outlets have dedicated resources to covering the White House, they’ve been added to the briefing room. That’s included the Daily Caller, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Newsmax, Yahoo, The Grio, and more – all digital outlets that have come onto the beat. We’ve also established rotations for regional reporters and foreign reporters to make sure more and diverse outlets get their shot.

The most obvious end result of this reported plan is the punishment, not elevation, of journalists. It’s the same at the Pentagon, where the administration removed longstanding outlets whose coverage they disagreed with for other outlets that did not regularly cover the building.

We’ll also add the notion of having the White House press secretary preside over an independent organization of journalists who are negotiating access with the administration is ridiculous. No board member or official representative of the WHCA has ever put forward such a non-starter suggestion.

If the White House is interested in a constructive relationship with the journalists that cover them, the solution isn’t complicated: first, commit to the government not punishing journalists for the content of their reporting, and second, engage with us on this.

The WHCA reached out on Sunday requesting a conversation with the White House today about the reported plans.

The WHCA has previously offered, and still stands ready, to discuss with the White House how to accommodate more and different types of journalists. We also offered logistical assistance and that remains on the table – providing support for trips, helping to coordinate coverage, and serving as a go-between for our nearly 900 individual members.

The White House picked this fight and continues to do so. Our members want to cover the administration without fear or favor, and stand ready to question government officials from any corner of the Brady Briefing Room.

Finally, let’s be clear about why seats and who assigns them even matter. It’s simple: for the American people. For the public to get the information it needs to understand and make decisions about the most powerful office in the world, it needs news produced by experienced, professional journalists who ask tough questions and produce fair coverage.

There is a reason Democratic and Republican administrations alike have maintained the existing arrangement with WHCA for decades. But if a White House’s goal instead is to receive “favorable coverage” through easy questions, the American people lose out.