Category: WHCA Statement
WHCA Creates New Mark Knoller Scholarship
The White House Correspondents’ Association is very pleased to announce the creation of a new scholarship, in honor of the late White House correspondent Mark Knoller and based at New York University, his alma mater.
“Mark Knoller was, by any measure, a legend of the White House press corps — a walking encyclopedia of presidential history and an invaluable resource to every colleague lucky enough to work alongside him. His generosity with knowledge was as defining as the knowledge itself,” said Weijia Jiang, president of the association.
“The WHCA is proud to partner with Knoller’s alma mater, NYU, to establish a scholarship in his name to support the next generation of journalists.”
The scholarship will be provided each year to a promising journalism student at the school’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, part of the association’s goal of helping the next generation of journalists, many of whom may someday take a seat in the White House press corps.
“We at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute are thrilled about our partnership with the WHCA, and very grateful for the opportunities that the Mark Knoller scholarship provides for journalism students at NYU,” said Charles Seife, Professor of Journalism and director of the institute.
“The mentorship and other assistance from the WHCA is invaluable for young reporters trying to find their footing, especially in such turbulent times.”
In addition to a grant of $5,000, the association will provide a mentor for a year from among veterans of the White House press corps. The student also will be invited to a luncheon and program in the spring, and as the WHCA’s guest at its annual dinner the next day.
The partnership with NYU is the latest in a steadily growing commitment to help journalism students around the country.
The WHCA now sponsors scholarships at American University, Arizona State University, Hampton University, Howard University, New York University, Northwestern University, Ohio University, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Kansas, the University of Maryland, University of Missouri, and University of Tennessee.
It also co-sponsors scholarships with the Asian-American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, and the White House Historical Association, as well as Syracuse University.
Knoller is the 5th former White House correspondent honored with a named scholarship.
The others have included Frank Cormier, Deborah Orin, Hugh Sidey and Harry McAlpin.
About Knoller
Knoller was a presence on the White House beat for decades, respected and warmly embraced by colleagues and competitors alike.
After graduating from New York University, Knoller started at WNEW Radio in New York, as an intern, copy boy and weekend reporter. He moved to the Associated Press Radio Network in 1975, then to CBS News in 1988 as an assignment editor in the Washington bureau. Soon after, he started covering the White House, for CBS Radio.
He covered presidents George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obma, and Donald Trump, at the White House and on trips around the world.
In 1996, he was the co-winner of the WHCA’s award for reporting under deadline pressure for his breaking news coverage of an intruder at the White House the year before. The judges cited “an outstanding job of writing and broadcasting multiple breaking stories over a 12-hour timespan.”
In a bit of serendipity, the judges honored two winners in the broadcast category, Knoller and Peter Maer for his coverage of President Clinton at the funeral of the Israeli Prime Minister. Maer at the time reported for Mutual/NBC Radio; he later moved to CBS and covered the White House with Knoller.
Knoller also was known for something unique in the White House press core: a meticulous record of presidential activities that he would readily share with competitors.
He started in 1996 when he realized there was no easy way to find out how many times Clinton had visited a state, something he wanted for a story.
Soon, he was recording every public thing a president did, from speeches and news conferences to travel stops to rounds of golf.
In 2010, the WHCA gave him the coveted Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage, noting his presidential records as a public service. Washingtonian magazine later noted that “reporters, presidential staffers, and even press secretaries” came to him for information about presidents’ activities.
He left CBS in 2020.
He died in 2025.
CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE WHCA IN SUPPORT OF SCHOLARSHIPS
About the WHCA
Founded in 1914, the White House Correspondents’ Association exists to ensure robust news coverage of the president and the presidency, and to promote excellence in journalism and journalism education. Each day, we work to ensure that the men and women who cover the White House have the ability to seek answers from powerful officials, up to and including the President. We also support awards for some of the best political reporting of the past year, and scholarships for young reporters who carry our hopes for vibrant journalism in the years to come. Our association comprises hundreds of members from the worlds of print, television, radio and online journalism. Their work, for outlets based in the United States and overseas, reaches a global audience.
About NYU Journalism
The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute is devoted to giving students the opportunity to do compelling work that informs and engages the societies in which we live. As a part of the Faculty of Arts & Science at New York University, the Institute is situated within a culture of liberal arts, and has the benefit of a distinguished faculty and location in the media capital of the world.
For more about the WHCA, contact Executive Director Steve Thomma at director@whca.press
Statement on President Trump’s Decision to Attend WHCA Dinner
For more than 100 years, the journalists of the White House Correspondents’ Association have enjoyed an evening with the president, a dinner that celebrates the First Amendment while supporting the work we do including awards honoring excellent journalism and scholarships to help the next generation of reporters who someday will be the ones asking the questions at the White House.
We’re happy the president has accepted our invitation and look forward to hosting him.
-Weijia Jiang, President, WHCA
WHCA Announces Renowned Mentalist Oz Pearlman as Entertainer for Annual Dinner
The White House Correspondents’ Association is delighted to announce famed mentalist Oz Pearlman will be the headline entertainer at its annual dinner in Washington on Saturday April 25, 2026.
“As the world’s most celebrated mentalist, Oz Pearlman will offer a fascinating glimpse into what’s truly on the minds of Washington’s newsmakers,” said Weijia Jiang, president of the association. “We look forward to an exciting, fresh, and interactive evening as we celebrate the First Amendment and Washington news coverage together.”
Pearlman is an Emmy Award winner and New York Times bestselling author whose performances have amazed fans around the world while performing for their favorite sports teams, A-list celebrities and major global brands.
“I am thrilled to be the featured entertainer at this year’s WHCA dinner and join the ranks of Frank Sinatra, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, among many other legends,” said Pearlman. “This is a rare opportunity to gather so many accomplished, perceptive people in one place and invite them to share moments of wonder, surprise and awe.”
The WHCA dinner is traditionally attended by senior government officials and members of the news media. Proceeds from the dinner help finance all the WHCA’s work, including awards recognizing excellence in the profession and scholarships for journalism students.
About the WHCA
The WHCA comprises hundreds of members from the worlds of print, television, radio and online journalism. Their work, for outlets based in the United States and overseas, reaches a global audience.
Since its founding in 1914, the association has worked to ensure the journalists who cover the White House have the ability to seek answers from powerful officials, up to and including the president. That includes everything from advocating for access and managing the pools of reporters who stay close to the president to logistics for the press corps following the president around the world.
More About Oz Pearlman
What began as a childhood fascination with magic evolved into a lifelong passion—and ultimately a global career that has redefined modern mentalism.
After several successful years on Wall Street, Oz made the decision to pursue entertainment full-time. Nearly three decades later, he continues to amaze audiences worldwide.
A breakout star on NBC’s America’s Got Talent, Oz captivated the nation week after week with original, never-before-seen mentalism routines. He later joined an elite group that includes David Blaine and David Copperfield by headlining his own network television special. Oz Knows aired multiple times on NBC to rave reviews and earned Oz an Emmy Award the following year.
His appearances on Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football have been viewed over 1 billion times, leading the NFL to invite him to become the first variety performer of his kind to appear on television immediately prior to the Super Bowl. He has made over 200 television and major media appearances on national and international networks, including 60 Minutes, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The TODAY Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Joe Rogan Experience, HBO, ABC World News, NBC News, CBS, ESPN, CNBC, NFL Network, Bravo and Fox Business.
Oz calls New York City home, where he considers his wife and five children his greatest achievements. He is a New York Times bestselling author of Read Your Mind: Proven Habits for Success from the World’s Greatest Mentalist and an elite endurance athlete. Oz has completed some of the world’s most grueling races, including the Badwater 135, the Hawaii Ironman World Championships, Western States 100 and Spartathlon. He holds a marathon personal best of 2:23 and has won dozens of races nationwide.
In April 2022, Oz was featured on the cover of The New York Times after breaking the world record for the most miles ever run around Central Park in a single day—116 miles—while raising over $100,000 for Save the Children’s Ukraine Relief Fund. Later that year, he shattered the record for the fastest crossing of Long Island on foot, running from Montauk to Manhattan in just 21 hours on the hottest day of the summer.
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For more, contact WHCA Executive Director Steve Thomma at director@whca.press
Statement on New Restriction on Journalists at the White House
The White House Correspondents’ Association unequivocally opposes any effort to limit journalists from areas within the communications operations of the White House that have long been open for newsgathering, including the press secretary’s office.
The new restrictions hinder the press corps’ ability to question officials, ensure transparency, and hold the government accountable, to the detriment of the American public.
– Weijia Jiang, WHCA President
Statement on Press Restrictions at the Pentagon
The White House Correspondents’ Association and the State Department Correspondents’ Association stand in strong solidarity with the Pentagon Press Association as it defends freedom of the press. Access inside the Pentagon has never been about convenience to reporters. The public has a right to know how the government is conducting the people’s business. Unfettered reporting on the U.S. military and its civilian leadership provides a service to those in uniform, veterans, their families and all Americans.
-Weijia Jiang, WHCA President
-Shaun Tandon, SDCA President
WHCA, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 46 others file court brief in AP case against the White House
Results of 2025 WHCA Election
WHCA Election Results – June 13, 2025
Here are the results of the 2025 WHCA elections. A total of 411ballots were submitted.
These terms start July 15 and run through July 14, 2028
AT-LARGE SEAT 2025-2028
Brian Bennett, TIME 290
Christian Datoc, Washington Examiner 106
Write-in 0
Abstain 14
TV SEAT 2025-2028
Sara Cook, CBS 233
DJ Judd, CNN 163
Write-in 1
Abstain 11
AT-LARGE SEAT 2025-2028 – AND PRESIDENT IN 2027-2028
Jacqui Heinrich, Fox News 236
Darlene Superville, AP 165
Kelly Wright, CBN 7
Write-in 0
Abstain 3
For more information, contact Executive Director Steve Thomma at director@whca.press
Report: Presidential interactions with White House Press at 100 days
Sharing a report on Presidential Interactions with the White Press at 100 days, from Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump’s second term.
This comes from Martha Kumar, the longtime chronicler of Presidential press conferences, interviews and so forth. She is Director of the White House Transition Project and also emeritus professor at Towson University.
For her work, shared with the WHCA and its members for many years, she was awarded the President’s Award for Exceptional Service to the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2018.
Statement on the Unprecedented Exclusion of Wires on International Trip
For the first time since the White House press corps started traveling with American presidents abroad, no wire service reporter is aboard Air Force One today. As the president travels across the ocean for high-stakes meetings in the Middle East, the White House has decided not to include any wire reporter on the presidential aircraft.
The White House pool was created to be representative of the different types of media outlets that serve different readers. Leaving out the wires is a disservice to Americans who need news about their president, especially on foreign trips where anything could happen and the consequences can impact the entire world.
If you have read or watched the news, you’ve relied on the words written and transmitted immediately by wire reporters from The Associated Press, Bloomberg or Reuters. Their reports are distributed quickly to thousands of news outlets and millions of readers throughout the world every day, so all have equal access to coverage of the presidency. This change is a disservice to every American who deserves to know what their highest elected leader is up to, as quickly as possible.
The WHCA is disturbed by this new restriction on who can cover this White House and continued retaliation for independent editorial decisions. The WHCA is advocating for the wire service journalists to return to their seats on Air Force One where they have reliably covered every president for decades, not for us but for the millions of Americans who depend on their reporting every day.
Statement on WH Changes To Wire Pool Positions
As we’ve said before, the government should not be able to control the independent media that covers it.
The changes to the press pool today show that the White House is just using a new means to do the same thing: retaliate against news organizations for coverage the White House doesn’t like. The WHCA is working to find out what this means in practice but what we do know is that restrictions on White House media coverage only hurt the American people who rely on unfiltered journalism to stay informed and make decisions critical to their lives.
The Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Reuters play an integral role in coverage of the presidency and should be allowed their traditional spots in the pool. Their ability to share news instantly with millions of readers and other smaller news organizations who can’t afford to be at the White House is unmatched.
The White House’s insistence they would also ‘retain day-to-day discretion’ of the pool’s composition rather than utilize regular rotations with clear criteria also underscores that the administration remains unwilling to provide guarantees they will not continue to engage in the viewpoint discrimination that was ruled unlawful by a federal court.
-Eugene Daniels, president of the WHCA
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.