White House Correspondents Insider

The DNC announced that the 2020 Democratic National Convention would be moved entirely online this year after several people at the Milwaukee site tested positive for COVID-19, reports the Daily Beast.

“As testing increased this week, our system detected three cases which have been reported to the health department and given instructions to self-isolate,” a convention aide said.

The presumptive democratic nominee, Joe Biden will now broadcast his nomination acceptance speech from a site in Delaware. Additionally, the massive in-person electoral training that Democrats had planned to hold at the convention in Milwaukee will be moved online as well.

Politico reported that Biden’s campaign would be teaming up with the progressive group Arena and Wisconsin’s Democratic Party to “provide free online training to activists to teach them how to get out the vote and persuade swing voters during the convention.”

“In the age of coronavirus, the path to victory for Democrats up and down the ballot has shifted dramatically,” said the executive director of Wisconsin’s Democratic Party, Nellie Sires. “The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and Arena are proud to have the opportunity to pull back the curtain and equip Democratic volunteers across the country with the tools they need.”

This decision comes shortly after RNC officials suggested that the press would be banned from the Republican National Convention out of concern for North Carolina’s social distancing restrictions. Responding to criticism on the decision, Trump has recently suggested accepting his own nomination at the White House instead so that the press would be able to cover the event.

“I’ll probably do mine live from the White House,” Trump said on Fox and Friends. “If for some reason somebody had difficulty with it, I could go with someplace else,” he added.

This did in fact receive pushback from both Democrats and Republicans alike who were concerned about the legal and ethical i

mplications of hosting a political event at the White House, says the Washington Post. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that an acceptance speech “won’t happen” at the White House, while Sen. John Cornyn acknowledged that it would be “problematic.” Sen. Ron Johnson said that a White House acceptance speech is “probably not allowed” and that they “probably shouldn’t do it.” 

When asked about Republican concerns about the legality of the White House hosting the event, Trump merely said, “It’s legal,” before moving on.

The Republican National Convention is changing their plans again. According to a story first reported by Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Party and Convention officials are saying that the nominating convention set for Charlotte, North Carolina will be shutting its doors to reporters for the duration of the event. Republicans say that they were forced to make this unprecedented decision due to social distancing restrictions imposed by the North Carolina governor.

“[W]e are planning for all of the Charlotte activities to be closed press: Friday, August 21 – Monday, 24th given the health restrictions and limitations in place in the state,” said a convention spokesperson in an email. “We are happy to let you know if this changes, but we are working within the parameters set before us by state and local guidelines regarding the number of people who can attend events.”

A Republican official also told CNN that, “Reporters will not be allowed on site as RNC delegates vote to formally nominate President Donald Trump as the 2020 Republican presidential nominee.”

New York Times White House Correspondent Maggie Habberman responded to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette story on Twitter, pointing out that it was still “unclear if the convention business portion will be open press or closed.”

The following day RNC Communications Director Michael Ahrens clarified that there has been “no final decision,” and that they are “still working through logistics and press coverage options.” 

“[A] livestream is part of the press coverage options we are working through,” Ahrens added.

This most recent change comes after Trump scrapped plans to hold the Convention in Jacksonville, Florida citing concerns about the coronavirus.

Zeke Miller, President of the White House Correspondents Association and an Associated Press reporter, called the restriction of journalists “an ill-advised decision” on Twitter.

“The nomination of a major party presidential candidate is very much the business of the American people,” Miller pointed out.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is looking for an experienced broadcaster to front Downing Street’s new daily televised briefings set to launch in October, and he’s looking towards the White House for inspiration, says CNN Business reporter Hadas Gold.

This Wednesday, the UK Prime Minister’s Office posted a job advertisement asking for “an experienced and confident media operator” to run the new daily televised briefings. The description for the position says, “You will represent the government and the Prime Minister to an audience of millions on a daily basis, across the main broadcast channels and social media, and have the chance to influence and shape public opinion.”

According to a Times article, Johnson is looking for a female broadcaster to fill this spot to help deflect criticisms that his administration has a “woman problem.” Some of the potential picks that have been suggested include Sophy Ridge of Sky News, Amber de Botton of ITV News, Vicki Young of BBC News, Allegra Stratton, Rishi Sunak’s PR chief, and Rosie Bate-Williams, a Defra official and former Tory spin doctor.

Up until this October, the press briefings on No. 10 Downing Street have always been held twice a day without any cameras present. The decision to switch to a televised format came after the UK’s daily pandemic press conferences became one of the most watched television broadcasts in British history, pulling more than 27.5 million viewers one Sunday according to a Variety Magazine story. Johnson seems to want to keep that trend alive. In early July, Johnson told LBC radio, “We do think that people want direct engagement and want stuff from us and so we’re going to have a go at that.”

However, a few aficionados of the White House’s own televised press briefings have offered some cautious warnings about the new changes. Mike McMurry, the former White House Press Secretary who first started the White House’s televised briefings in 1995, now thinks that the briefings should be “embargoed,” reports CNN. 

“This requires journalists to record the briefing, test the information against other sources, maybe extract comment from others, and then prepare reports that use what is truly newsworthy,” McCurry said.

Ben Feller, the former chief White House correspondent for the Associated Press, told CNN Business that most reporters don’t find the daily briefings very helpful, but still suggests that reporters “prepare appropriately, get to the point, don’t take punts for answers, follow up, and act as you normally would.”

Caren Bohan, the Washington editor of USA Today and a former White House Correspondents’ Association president, gave a more optimistic remark. While she acknowledged that televising the Downing Street briefings would change the relationship between the press and government, she still thinks that the change is “overdue.”“Most public officials are likely to be more guarded on camera than they would be speaking to reporters without cameras. You are more likely to get ‘talking points’ and less candid responses,” Bohan said, according to CNN. “That said, the more access there is, the better it is for the press and the public.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association has canceled this year’s annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Politico reports, with plans to host the 2020 Journalism Awards presentation via a virtual platform.

The long-awaited gala dinner was originally set for April 25th, but was postponed until August 29th as the coronavirus began to spread across the country. In an email to members, White House Correspondents’ Association President Jonathan Karl said the Association had been “working hard to reconfigure the dinner in ways to make it safe for guests and staff, but after consultation with medical experts, government authorities, and our own members, we’ve concluded that it is just not possible to put on the kind of dinner that promotes the best in journalism and allows our guests to comfortably and safely enjoy themselves.” 

This year’s Journalism Awards presentation is set to include two new awards: The Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability and the Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage by Visual Journalists. The University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications is also expected to give the inaugural presentation for the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability to recognize “outstanding statehouse reporting.” The White House Correspondents’ Association is hoping that with a virtual presentation, they will still be able to “salute award-winning journalism, toast an impressive group of scholarship winners, and still enjoy a few laughs.” 

Meanwhile, support is growing online for the 2021 WHC Dinner to feature TikTok comedian and writer Sarah Cooper, famous for her online lip-syncing parody videos of President Donald Trump.

The White House Correspondents’ Association is accepting any contributions to support this year’s virtual awards presentation. Several members have graciously offered to convert their payment for dinner tickets into a fully tax-deductible contribution. For more details on how to donate, the WHC Association asks that you reach out to Director Steve Thomma at director@whca.press.

The White House Correspondents’ Association announced the winners of their much anticipated 2020 Journalism Awards this week to recognize journalists who provide outstanding coverage of the White House. 

“This year’s winners represent the best of the kind of journalism America needs now more than ever — fact-based reporting that holds those in power accountable without fear or favor,” said Jonathan Karl, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

News networks that received awards include: PBS, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, and ProPublica. One of the most prominent awards, the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence in White House Coverage, established in 1981 as a joint effort of the Tribune Company and WHCA, features a $1,000 cash prize. This year, PBS Newshour’s White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor won the Aldo Beckman Award for her unique insights on national stories and delicate handling of race and immigration, judges say.

“Alcindor’s qualities reflect integrity, impartial analysis, breadth and depth of knowledge of the presidency and a love of the institution,” said the WHCA’s press release. “We look forward to watching her work for decades to come.”

The WHCA also introduced two new awards this year: The Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability, and the Award for Excellence in Presidential News Coverage by Visual Journalists.

The Award for Visual Journalists was received by New York Times photographer Doug Mills for “the Pelosi Clap” photo.

“Doug Mills’ photograph of Nancy Pelosi and President Trump at the State of the Union Address is a visual representation of one of the most contentious political relationships in recent memory,” judges said. “The image brilliantly displays the tension, the personal animus and the power clash among branches of government that tells the story of this time and of this presidency.”

The Katharine Graham Award had a particularly contentious field. Writing about the entries for the award, judges noted, “If anyone doubts the vigor of journalism today, we would invite them to look at the entries for the Katharine Graham Award for Courage and Accountability. It was a remarkable field covering a range of topics, which made it hard to settle on a winner.” 

Judges ultimately decided to give the Katharine Graham Award to ProPublica for their eye-opening investigations on the “separate collisions in 2017 involving two Navy destroyers and a 2018 Marine mid-air collision.” The Navy worked hard to block the reporting of the incidents which led to the deaths of 23 Pacific Fleet service men, but ProPublica persevered. Judges said, “Top-notch reporting was combined with detail-rich writing that made the stories impossible to put down.”

On behalf of WHC Insider, congratulations to all the winners of the WHCA’s 2020 Journalism Awards.

Those who have never had a family member or close friend serve in the military often take for granted the hardships military families face everyday. Now, amidst the one of the largest national security threats in U.S. history, Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, shares her mission to remind Americans of the sacrifices taken by those involved in the military, both home and abroad, on Full Court Press Now with Greta Van Susteren.

Kathy Roth-Douquet founded the Blue Star Families organization in 2009, which was named in commemoration of the WWII tradition of hanging ‘Blue Star Flags’ in homes that had a family member deployed in the war. The organization uses the tradition to call attention to the fact that, even in times of relative peace, military families often face struggles that other families do not. Currently there are roughly 300,000 people deployed to 177 countries around the world, and the families back home often have to help shoulder that burden. “The average military kid goes to 6 to 9 schools in their K-12 education,” said Kathy in an interview with Greta Van Susteren. “My daughter Sophie, when she was in 10th grade she was entering her 10th school.”

The struggles of military families, like much of the country, have only gotten worse since the pandemic began. Many of these families were in temporary living or between housing when ‘stop movement’ orders were put into place. As a result, according to Kathy Roth-Douquet, “up to 20% of folks with ‘stop movement’ orders are expected to pay two leases or two mortgages within the next 60 days.” Recently, a letter signed by 21 members of congress demanded relief for these military personnel.

Kathy noted that some in the military whose spouses may also be out of work due to coronavirus are also beginning to worry about food insecurity. “Right now, based on your housing allowance, a lot of young military families aren’t eligible for SNAP even though that housing money is not available for them to buy food,” explains Kathy. “8% of respondents in our poll say that they’re concerned about being able to feed their families next week.” Blue Star Families and several other organizations continue to ask congress for increased “eligibility for military families”  for food insecurity programs like SNAP or WIC. Unfortunately, new legislation will likely have to wait for the next stimulus bill. Kathy asks anybody willing to talk to congress about this issue to write to either the Senate and House Committees on Armed Services or the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee.

On the brightside; despite some 65,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among military personnel in the U.S., there have only been two recorded deaths since the outbreak started. There has been some concern on whether testing capacity is sufficient to safely restart training camps, however the military appears to be in good hands in regards to health safety. “Those [two deaths] are tragic,” says Kathy, “but military medicine is excellent, so we haven’t seen the spikes in death, but this remains an active concern.”Blue Star Families is hosting two Town Halls a week, free and open to the public, for people who want to learn more about how COVID-19 is affecting military families. You can register for the next one here. Additional resources can be found on the COVID-19 Military Support Initiative website found here.

The White House Correspondents’ Association announced Monday that the White House Correspondents’ Dinner has been rescheduled for Saturday, August 29th, 2020, same week as the 2020 Republican National Convention. After consulting with “public health and medical officials,” the White House Correspondents Association announced their new date, determined to “celebrate the kind [of] important journalism we have seen throughout this crisis.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association was also happy to confirm that their host, Kenan Thompson of SNL, and featured entertainer, Hazan Minhaj of Netflix’s ‘Patriot Act’, are both able to attend the new date, and that Bob Bain Productions will still be partnering with White House Correspondents’ Association to bring a refreshing new look to the classic dinner. The two entertainers signal a return back to the Dinner’s long standing tradition of featuring comedic headliners. But that won’t be the only big changes this year.

In February, the White House Correspondents’ Association’s President, Jonathan Karl introduced new awards recognizing accountability journalism and reportorial courage, which have incidentally become central topics during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jonathan Karl is the author of the new bestseller, Front Row at The Trump Show.

President Trump, who has skipped the event for the past three years, has made no mention of attending the event this year.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering an appeal after a court ruling in favor of the journalistic freedom organization, PEN America. PEN America filed claims of retaliation against journalists on President Trump back in 2018 after, among other things, the President revoked CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press credentials because of an unfavorable exchange in the briefing room. The DOJ is considering an appeal to the U.S. District Court Judge Lorna Schofield’s March 24th decision that allowed PEN America to proceed with their case against President Trump. However they will not be able to receive an appeal without permission from both Judge Schofield and the Second Circuit. The administration is also asking for a 6 week extension — from April 7th to May 19th — to respond to PEN America’s claim in light of the public health emergency. MediaPost reports the story here.

Surprising as it sounds, the top freeagent in the City of Los Angeles is a 69-year old deli waitress according to the LA Times. As the favored watering hole of some of the biggest names in Hollywood, Nat ‘n Al’s deli, closes under pressure from the pandemic, top celebrities, city officials and other LA moguls are rushing to the aid of the 41-year veteran waitress, Gloria Leon. With a list of regulars any networking agent would die for — including Lew Wasserman, Bruce Willis, Jodie Foster, Steve Tisch, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Larry King among others — Leon’s hospitality and kindness quickly gained legendary status within the City of Angels. According to a member of the LA police commission, “There is no politician, there is no City Council member, there is no billionaire, who is more influential in Beverly Hills than Gloria,” and William Morris Endeavor partner Richard Weitz described Gloria as perhaps “the most well-connected non-entertainment person in all of L.A.” Larry King offered Leon high praise, saying, “She is one of the great, great restaurant workers anywhere. I can’t think of anyone in her league.”

Greta Van Susteren steps up her game yet again, joining InvestigateTV’s Lee Zurik to launch Gray Television, Inc.’s new daily show, “Full Court Press Now,” to begin Monday, April 6th, after the late local news. Deadline reported the new show here.

Greta Van Susteren is Gray Television’s Chief National Political Analyst and the Host of their Sunday political show, “Full Court Press with Greta Van Susteren,” where she pushes top political figures for the best and latest in news. Now, teaming up with Lee Zurik, New Orleans’ most honored investigative reporter, Greta will be able to leverage local, real-time reporting from Gray Television’s nearly 100 newsrooms to fill gaps in COVID-19 coverage across the country. According to Gray Television’s release, “The show will keep close watch on what public officials, private companies, and health providers are doing to support Americans in these unprecedented times.” The statement went on to say the show would “feature heroes battling the pandemic and the brave Americans fighting to survive.”

Viewers can rest assured that this power duo will provide real time information on the COVID-19 pandemic. Lee Zurik is the anchor of the News Orleans TV Station, WVUE, and runs InvestigateTV, the investigative unit of Gray Television. In March, Lee and his team at InvestigateTV launched a comprehensive COVID-19 County-by-County Tracker in order to start gathering much needed data on the local distribution of the virus. With their interactive map, which is updated multiple times each day, users can track the latest COVID-19 data in real time organized by county.

Meanwhile, Greta’s show, “Full Court Press” is a weekly syndicated Sunday show that premiered in September 2019 and now plays in over 80% of the country. For the past month, Greta has been chasing down Coronavirus Task Force Members, health officials, and prominent politicians to give her audience the best in coronavirus coverage. The new daily show will build on Greta’s existing weekend show. Channel listings and showtimes can be found here.