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The Trump administration is attempting to wrench control of the White House Press Corps from the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) — a move the independent journalistic organization that has handled the credentialing of White House reporters for decades says “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.”
During a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “the White House Correspondents Association has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces — not anymore.”
“Moving forward, the White House press pool will be determined by the White House press team,” she added. “Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join — fear not — but we will also be offering the privilege to well deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”
The decision came the day after a federal judge temporarily allowed the White House to move forward with a ban against the Associated Press from areas typically covered by members of the White House press pool. The ban was leveled against the international news wire after they refused to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” in their style guide.
Pool reporters are allowed significantly more access to the president than hundreds of general members of the White House Press Corps. The group of about 15 reporters — which rotate regularly — are able to cover the president in small spaces including the Oval Office and Air Force One, and often accompany the president on international trips. The WHCA is composed of journalists who elect their leadership from within the ranks of the nation’s White House reporters. The WHCA was founded in 1914 amid rumors that a congressional committee would be tasked with determining what reporters would be granted access to former President Woodrow Wilson’s press conferences — the guiding principle being that lawmakers should not be allowed to pick who reports on them.
The WHCA responded to Leavitt’s announcement on Tuesday with a blistering statement from its current President Eugene Daniels, a White House correspondent at Politico. “This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States,” he wrote. “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Daniels noted that the WHPC has “consistently expanded the WHCA’s membership and its pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.”
“To be clear, the White House did not give the WHCA board a heads up or have any discussions about today’s announcements,” he continued. “But the WHCA will never stop advocating for comprehensive access, full transparency and the right of the American public to read, listen to and watch reports from the White House, delivered without fear or favor.”
