The White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation is fed up with President Donald Trump. On Monday, the group slammed studies that his administration is planning to take management of the briefing room’s seating chart—a blatant try to sideline journalists and stack the room with MAGA loyalists.
“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 WHCA board wrote in an announcement obtained by Politico.
The board went on to induce the administration to again down.
“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,” it stated.
A weekend report from Axios urged that the White Home might quickly rearrange the press briefing room’s seating chart to pack the entrance rows with far-right retailers that hardly ever problem Trump.
And this isn’t the primary time the Trump administration has tried to rewrite the foundations.
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt
Then, in February, the White Home seized management of one other key WHCA operate: deciding which journalists get to be within the press pool masking Trump.
An nameless White Home official instructed Axios that the shake-up isn’t nearly boosting Trump’s media fan membership.
“It’s truly an honest look at consumption [of the outlets’ coverage]. Influencers are important, but it’s tough because they aren’t [equipped to provide] consistent coverage. So the ability to cover the White House is part of the metrics,” they stated.
Proper. And but, one way or the other, the most important media retailers—those that truly considerably maintain Trump accountable—are those that may probably get pushed to the again of the room.
The drama doesn’t cease there. Over the weekend, the WHCA abruptly canceled comic Amber Ruffin’s scheduled look at its annual correspondents’ dinner after backlash from the Trump administration.
HuffPost was briefly booted from the press pool, main wire companies have had their entry restricted, and The Related Press is suing the White Home for banning its journalists for refusing to consult with the Gulf of Mexico because the “Gulf of America.”
In response, the WHCA inspired its members to put on “First Amendment” pins on the White Home and through TV appearances.
However Trump’s message is already loud and clear: Should you don’t bend the knee, you may not get a seat on the desk.
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