White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

White House Asked White House Correspondents’ Association to Publicly Rebuke Reporter

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

White House Correspondents’ Association president Jeff Mason said the White House had requested the association to criticize a specific article and publicly rebuke a particular journalist. Mason made his remarks during a town hall-style meeting where members asked questions of the association board.

“The White House has come to ask me specifically, asking me to intervene or criticize a news organization or a reporter… to release a statement criticizing a reporter’s story. We’ve made clear that’s not our role,” Mason said, without clarifying on when the White House made this request or which article or journalist was involved.

In a follow up after the meeting, Mason elaborated that he thought the White House considered it a role of the association to publicly reprimand its members to hold them accountable.

“I think it’s a reflection of frustration they have with the media and they’ve used the relationship with the board sometimes to take that out, just as we have raised our concern and frustrations with them. Part of that relationship has been drawing boundaries on what we do and don’t do,” Mason stated.

He said the association immediately declined the White House’s request when they asked him to release a statement on the matter.

Megyn Kelly to Host New NBC News Show in September

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NBC International Information Bureau. Photo courtesy Jeff Maurone via Flickr.

Megyn Kelly will host a new hour-long morning segment starting September 25, broadcast in front of a live studio audience, NBC News has confirmed.

Compared to other morning news programs taking place primarily on a set with no substantial live viewership, NBC News is hoping Kelly’s upcoming program and its unique format will add a fresh perspective to the network’s array of news shows.

Today show senior producer Jackie Levin has been named executive producer of this hour-long live segment.  Levin has been called

“…one of the most talented and hardest-working producers in television news.  Her intimate knowledge of the brand will be invaluable as we launch Megyn’s show under the Today umbrella,” NBC News president Noah Oppenheim wrote in an email to staffers.

The show will be sandwiched between portions of the Today show, and premiers during NBC’s launch of its prime time schedule this fall.

Maine Governor Paul LePage Admits He Lies to Media

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Ogunquit, Maine.  Photo courtesy Pixabay.

Paul LePage, conservative Republican governor of Maine first elected in 2010, has always had a confrontational relationship with many in his state, including the media.

Recently, LePage lashed out when stories emerged in state papers and online that he was planning to take a vacation during a recent state budget impasse.  The governor characterized the state media as “vile,” “useless” and “inaccurate” in reporting the story.

State media reported the governor’s plans based off sources throughout state government, including Republican Senate President Michael Thibodeau and Sen. Roger Katz, whom both said on the record that LePage told them he was planning to leave the state.

LePage replied through a spokesman the story was “fake news.”

In an interview with WGAN-AM Thursday, LePage stated:

“I just love to sit in my office and make up ways so they’ll write these stupid stories, because they are just so stupid.  It’s awful.”

LePage later repeated his disdain for the press, saying “the sooner the print press goes away, the better society will be.”

Survey Finds Republicans Trust Trump, Democrats Trust CNN

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Photo courtesy Pixabay.

A new survey released by SurveyMonkey suggests that 89% of Republicans see President Donald Trump as more trustworthy as CNN, while 91% of Democrats hold the opposite opinion.  Independent voters are more split, with 55% choosing CNN, compared to the 40% that trust Trump more.

While the survey also shows that 64% of all adults disapprove of Trump’s use of Twitter, Jon Cohen, senior vice president of survey research at SurveyMonkey, said that:

“A red flag for Democrats continues to be a perception that Trump is isolating himself from the GOP base with his tweets.  Not only do most Republicans approve of his use of Twitter, but asked to describe those tweets, the No. 1 mention among the GOP is ‘truthful,’ with ‘entertaining’ in second place.”

Survey results also noted a danger for Republicans remaining content ignoring media outlets not frequented by their base.  Fully one-third of Republican respondents said they only get their news from Fox News.  Cohen explained further that:

“…the biggest danger for Republicans is that they grow content with firing up the base: Fully three-quarters of pure independents (those that don’t lean one way or the other) disapprove of Trump’s tweeting, and their top three descriptions for it are ‘undignified,’ ‘mean,’ and ‘dishonest.’”

SurveyMonkey conducted their poll online between June 29 and July 3, with a margin of error of +/- 2.5 percent.  4,965 adults participated in the survey.

Conservative Media Outlets Get Seats in White House Briefing Room

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

The seating chart in the White House briefing room has been updated, with changes including adding conservative media outlets Newsmax and One America News Network (OAN).

In an email to members, White House Correspondents Association president Jeff Mason announced that

“…the board considered multiple criteria during this decision-making process, including regular briefing attendance and commitment to the White House beat.  We also looked at news outlets’ audiences, both in terms of reach and in terms of preserving (or in some cases adding) diversity in the briefing room. We took stock of the changing landscape of our industry. Weighing these and other factors, we worked through what is always a difficult process affecting news outlets, colleagues and friends.”

Newsmax will now have its own seat in the center of the sixth row.  Correspondent John Gizzi has been present at most briefings and called upon frequently.   OAN will now share a seat with the BBC in the seventh row, as former seat-mate The Boston Globe shifts over to now join CQ Roll Call in their chair.

Other changes in the seating chart include a swap between AP Radio and USA Today.  USA Today will now be in the second row, with AP Radio taking the seat in the third row.  MSNBC and the foreign pool will trade places in the fourth row, while Christian Science Monitor moves up a row to share a seat in the fifth row with the New York Post, freeing up a seat for The Daily Mail.

The White House Correspondents’ Association, not the White House itself, determines the seating chart in the briefing room.

Greta Van Susteren Leaves MSNBC

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Greta Van Susteren at the 2017 Garden Brunch. Photo courtesy Haddad Media.

Legendary news host Greta Van Susteren has parted ways with cable news channel MSNBC.

According to Vanity Fair, Van Susteren will not be on the air Thursday; instead the time slot will be hosted by Ari Melber.

White House Publicly Criticizes CNN as “Fake News,” Promotes Undercover Video While Admitting Questionable Accuracy

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CNN Headquarters in Atlanta. Photo courtesy Pixabay.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Tuesday criticized CNN during a press briefing by saying the network’s alleged “disregard for facts” was “coming directly from the top.”

She also encouraged Americans to watch an undercover sting video produced by conservative James O’Keefe of Project Veritas that showed a CNN health unit producer questioning his network’s coverage of President Trump and Russia, suggesting other important stories have been buried by the news network.

Sanders stated during the press briefing that CNN’s actions are “a disgrace to all of media, all of journalism.”

Turning to the conservative video she promoted during the press hearing, Sanders admitted its accuracy was questionable.

“There’s a video circulating now, whether it’s accurate or not I don’t know, but I would encourage everyone in this room and frankly, everyone across the country, to take a look at it,” she stated.

Commenting on the undercover video, a CNN source said that “It’s silly, it’s been spun up as something it’s not.  [The producer is] a health unit producer in Atlanta. He has nothing to do with Washington politics or the investigative unit.”

CNN viewership has increased 10 percent year-over-year, according to Nielsen ratings from the second quarter released on Tuesday. The network is running in third place in the battle for cable news viewers, behind Fox News and MSNBC, while still ranking in the top ten cable channels overall.

“CNN just posted it’s most-watched second quarter in history,” the network’s communications department tweeted Tuesday in response to criticism from President Trump.

White House Correspondents’ Association Not Satisfied with Off-Camera Briefings

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James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy White House.

Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, has announced the organization is “not satisfied” with the halt of daily, televised and recorded White House press briefings.

The White House press team has frequently cancelled or modified daily briefings, such as hosting off-camera sessions, forbidding the use of audio from the briefings, or cancelling them all together on certain days.

“The WHCA’s position on this issue is clear: we believe strongly that Americans should be able to watch and listen to senior government officials face questions from an independent news media, in keeping with the principles of the First Amendment and the need for transparency at the highest levels of government,” Mason said in an email to members of the association.

Members of the White House staff have publicly suggested changes in the daily briefings, and have already changed several aspects from the traditional setting. Changes such as “Skype Seats” where reporters and talk show hosts from across the country are able to ask questions, have been included in some briefings.

Press secretary Sean Spicer defended the administration’s changes and potential alterations to the format of the briefings. “We’re going to do what we can to communicate our message,” Spicer said at Tuesday’s briefing when asked about the frequency of press briefings. “The briefing is one aspect of what we do.”

Fox News, MSNBC Rated Top Two Most-Watched Cable Networks

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Photo courtesy Jeff Maurone via Wikimedia Commons.

Cable news channels Fox News and MSNBC were the top two most-watched networks on basic cable for the week spanning June 12 through June 18, according to data provided by Nielsen Media Research.

Fox News has spent 24 consecutive weeks as the top channel in all basic cable, reaching an average of 2.35 million viewers during prime time, and also earning total-day viewership of 1.508 million, calculated as the average of viewers between 6AM and 6PM EST.

Notably, Fox News has also reclaimed the top spot in the key 25-54 demographic, averaging 460,000 viewers in prime time from rival MNSNB, which received 435,000 viewers.  CNN had received 348,000 viewers in this demographic.

MSNBC has lately been seeing its highest ratings in the channel’s 21-year history, with 1.942 million viewers during prime time, which landed the network at second place overall in basic cable. The channel’s total-day viewers brings the network in at third place with 1.009 million total viewers, behind Fox and Nickelodeon.

CNN is also up in viewers nearly 50 percent year-over-year, and ranks seventh place in prime time total viewers with 1.028 million. The network ranks fifth in total-day viewers with an average of 831,000.

All three cable news networks are up 33 percent through the first week of June, compared to the same time frame during 2016.