White House Says It Will Now Pick and Choose Pool Reporters

(Bloomberg) — The White House said that it was taking control of picking and choosing the group of reporters able to cover President Donald Trump in limited environments like the Oval Office and Air Force One.

The decision, announced at a press briefing Tuesday, came a day after a federal court hearing in which the Associated Press asked for a temporary restraining order seeking to halt White House efforts to block them from the press pool that covers the president in certain circumstances.

US District Judge Trevor McFadden declined to issue the restraining order sought by AP, but warned the government that case law suggested that AP could prevail on their content-based discrimination argument. He also questioned why the White House had for decades delegated responsibility for the pool to the White House Correspondents’ Association, a collection of news organizations. 

By taking control of the pools, the White House can set its own criteria for participation and would no longer need to justify actively excluding particular outlets. That could allow the government to sidestep any ruling that would have reinstated the wire service.

READ: Judge Rejects Associated Press Bid on White House Access (1)

“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. 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,” WHCA president Eugene Daniels said in an emailed statement Tuesday. 

Daniels said that the White House hadn’t given the WHCA “a heads up” about the Tuesday announcement. 

The dispute between the White House and the AP stems from the Trump administration’s move to block the nearly 180-year-old newswire from participating in pool events because its style guide continues to use the phrase “Gulf of Mexico” even though Trump ordered federal officials to rename the body of water the “Gulf of America.”

AP is part of the pool that is currently selected by the WHCA, which represents hundreds of reporters covering the White House, and includes participants from a variety of media.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that going forward, her staff would determine the pool and include “legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades” as well as “well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility.”

“For decades, a group of DC-based journalists, 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,” Leavitt said. “Not anymore — I am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people.”

Leavitt said the pool would continue to have a rotation that includes at a minimum a print outlet, a radio outlet and one major television network. She offered few details on how participation would be determined. Bloomberg News has been a longtime permanent member of the pool administered by the WHCA.

The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to reshape or restrict coverage since returning to office.

Last month, the White House established a “new media seat” in the White House briefing room that it has largely filled with sympathetic outlets who have used their questions to praise Trump and his policies.

At the Pentagon, longtime media outlets were kicked out of their workspace in favor of different outlets – some of whom said they had not requested the space. The Defense Department also reduced the availability of access to common workspace, creating additional difficulties for reporters.

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