Reversing decades of precedent, the White House Correspondents Association announced on Wednesday that it would no longer coordinate shared coverage of President Donald Trump in an escalating dispute over press access to official events.
Escalating Dispute over Press Access
The association, representing over 60 news organizations that routinely cover the president, declared that it would cease managing the rotating cast of reporters at White House events or compiling shared news accounts widely used in American political journalism.
“This board will not facilitate any effort by this administration or any other to take control of independent press coverage of the White House,” stated WHCA President Eugene Daniels, a POLITICO journalist, in a message to association members. “Each organization must decide whether to participate in these new, government-appointed pools.”
The decision followed the White House's exclusion of certain organizations from news events, seen by the correspondents association as retribution that undermines press freedom under the First Amendment and exacerbates existing tensions between presidents and the media.
Daniels instructed members to refrain from sending reports to an association listserv that enables their work to be shared by other journalists, as the White House had assumed control of the process.
The “WHCA cannot guarantee that reports filed by government-selected poolers will meet the same standards we have maintained for decades,” he emphasized.
Control Over Press Access
This move came shortly after the administration obtained a temporary ruling allowing it to exclude The Associated Press from pooled events. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also announced that the White House would determine which outlets have access to the president as part of the pool permitted into the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and at other meetings and events that cannot accommodate the full press corps.
Simultaneously, the White House press office removed the Huffington Post from the pool of journalists covering the president, without explanation. The liberal outlet was slated to be the pooler on Wednesday until its White House correspondent, S.V. Date, received a late-night message informing him of the denial of access.
Uncertain Future for Press Coverage
Daniels posed several inquiries that the association and the White House press corps have for the administration regarding the handling of shared coverage of the president in the future.
He also questioned whether, moving forward, the rotation will consist of news organizations of their choosing.
“As I mentioned previously, this action by the White House jeopardizes the independence of a free press in the United States,” Daniels emphasized. “It implies that the government will select the journalists who cover the president. You will hear me continue to assert that in a democratic society, leaders should not have the authority to pick their own press corps.”
Despite these challenges, Daniels confirmed that the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, a longstanding event attended by presidents other than Trump, is set to proceed as planned on April 26.
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