Maddie
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that the White House Correspondents Association will no longer get to choose the White House press pool. Instead, she said, news outlets that have access to President Donald Trump will be determined by the White House press team.
The White House Correspondents Association is an independent organization that represents journalists who cover the White House. Historically, it has been responsible for determining and vetting the press pool, a group of journalists who have access to the president in spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One for reporting purposes.
“Legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool, but new voices are going to be welcomed in as well,” Leavitt said.
The move is being framed as a way to integrate new news voices into the rotating pool, including digital news outlets and podcasters according to The New York Times. On its face, that may not seem so bad to most people: yay for smaller outlets covering big topics! But what they won’t say is the inherent, deep-seated reality of this decision:
It will restrict free press, a core tenet of democracy.
Reporters who have access to the president will now be hand-picked by the very administration they are covering. The Trump administration will have full authority over which journalists from what news outlets will be able to ask questions of the president.
This will allow White House press team to fill the press pool with partisan media sympathetic to the administration, media that are less concerned with the public’s right to know and more concerned with making Donald Trump look good.
It means that the public is less likely to be told the truth – a fundamental responsibility of journalism – and more likely to be spoon fed half of one or not one at all. It means that instead of highlighting government wrongdoing, it will be hidden by those who, as press, have a duty to inform the people of and investigate such wrongdoings.
It means that in a country too ignorant of media literacy, the people will have to look further for the truth. It means that even as the Trump administration echoes they are dedicated to transparency, there will be no transparency at all.
The press will not be free, and the public’s right to know will be fundamentally diminished. Instead, the press can easily be punished for reporting news in a way the Trump administration disagrees with or deems as damaging to its image.
I cannot emphasize enough that democratic governments do not decide what news outlets get to cover them. There is a clear conflict of interest inherent in the move, and the move seen Tuesday is done for the Trump administration’s own gain, not in the name of transparency or in expanding press freedom.
As WHCA President Eugene Daniels puts it, “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
I could be wrong about the administration’s intentions and how it will choose to carry out its decision. If I am, then I will preemptively admit that. But, the optics of this decision and what it means for the future of press freedom are not something that can simply be ignored.
As a student journalist, I urge professional journalists to not get complacent with this administration, to not obey in advance. Set the stage for student journalists like myself to push back against government overreach and to keep reporting in the face of adversity.
There are thousands of journalists before you that refused to be complacent in the wake of mounting attacks on journalism and journalists. Journalism was made stronger because of their willingness to fight and keep reporting on what mattered rather than on what the government favored.
Do not stop that work now.