White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt announced on Tuesday, the 25th of February, that the White House will now decide which media organisations can attend press conferences covering events at the White House and other intimate locations and share material with other media outlets, taking back control from journalists who have covered the President for decades, according to Reuters and the British broadcaster BBC.
The move follows the Trump administration’s decision to exclude the Associated Press (AP) from the press pool because it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as ” the Gulf of the America” or change its style book to include the new name.
“For decades, the White House Correspondents’ Association … has determined which reporters can ask questions of the US president in the most intimate of spaces. But no longer,” Leavitt said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“FROM NOW ON, THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS TEAM IN THIS ADMINISTRATION WILL DETERMINE WHO WILL HAVE VERY PRIVILEGED AND LIMITED ACCESS TO ROOMS LIKE AIR FORCE ONE AND THE OVAL OFFICE,” LEAVITT SAID.
She said the changes will allow “new media”, including streaming services and podcasts, to “share in this awesome responsibility”.
“Old media that have been here for years will still be able to participate, but new voices will also be welcomed,” she said, adding that by [deciding] which media outlets will be able to access the White House on a daily basis, “the White House is giving power back to the American people”.
“This move doesn’t give power back to the people – it gives power to the White House,” wrote Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich, a WHCA board member, on X.
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), which previously coordinated the rotation of journalist pool that are given access to and cover events at the White House, said it did so to ensure consistent professional standards and fair access for all on behalf of the public.
In its statement, the WHCA said the decision “demonstrates that the government will select the journalists who cover the President”. The WHCA said it had not received any notification of the White House’s decision before Tuesday’s press briefing.
“We’re going to be now calling the shots,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office later when asked about the move.
Both the BBC and Reuters are among the agencies whose journalists are given access to White House events.
A federal judge on Monday rejected the AP’s request to immediately restore full access for agency reporters to joint events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One, where Trump regularly holds question-and-answer sessions with journalists.