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 Correspondents Say Spicer Turning Daily Briefings into Chaotic Shouting Matches

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James Brady Press Briefing Room, 2007. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Long-time reporters covering the White House have complained that the Trump administration is purposefully utilizing inexperienced conservative bloggers to reduce press secretary Sean Spicer’s daily briefings to little more than chaotic shouting matches.

CBS News White House correspondent Major Garrett said the inclusion of right-wing bloggers has reduced the quality of questions during daily briefings.

“[Mainstream, experienced journalists] ask questions that are sharper, more informed.  Not ‘What’s your message today?’… not ‘Here’s a paintbrush; would you paint us a pretty picture?,” Garrett said in an interview with The New Yorker.

Another television journalist, declining to speak on the record, said the current situation does little more than inject chaos into the briefings.

“Maybe you’ll get a question, if you should loud enough.  Who knows?… [The inclusion of bloggers] makes everyone desperate and competitive and makes us look like a bunch of braying jackals.  Which I don’t think is an accident.”

Most conservative bloggers, newly included in the daily briefings by the Trump administration, are under 30 years old and have never worked for a “mainstream” or outlet, instead working for pro-Trump blogs.

The television reporter continued, “At what point does it start to delegitimize the whole idea of what happens in that room?  When does it cross the line into pure trolling?”

Major Media Banned from Friday’s White House Q&A

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James Brady Press Briefing Room, 2007. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s Friday question-and-answer session will occur without major news outlets such as Politico, CNN, the New York Times, BuzzFeed and the Los Angeles Times.

Instead of the standard on-camera briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, Spicer instead held an off-camera “gaggle” inside his West Wing office.  Attendees were welcomed to the session by invitation only.

Some major news organizations were also let in, such as ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Reuters and Bloomberg.

Jeff Mason, the White House Correspondents’ Association president, blasted the situation.

“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House.  We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not.  The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”

The White House has not commented on the situation.

President Trump Ignores Mainstream Media at White House Press Conferences

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Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

At the three most recent press conferences held by President Donald Trump, he has exclusively called on conservative-leaning firms and sites for questions.

On February 10, during a joint conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump called on the New York Post and Fox Business News.  Three days later when taking questions alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Trump picked Sinclair-Broadcasting-owned WJLA and the Daily Caller to ask questions.  And on Wednesday when appearing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump chose the Christian Broadcasting News and Townhall.com.

Neither CBN nor Townhall.com asked President Trump about national security advisor Michael Flynn’s resignation or the slew of reports about contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence agents.

Mainstream media journalists have been locked out from directly asking Trump any questions at all.  CNN’s Jim Acosta voiced a question about Russia, which the president ignored.

Reporters have been blasting the president and Spicer both for avoiding difficult questions by cherry-picking only favorable, conservative sites.

Typically, past presidents have traditionally called on the Associated Press for the first question in a press conference, followed by major news organizations.

Spicer himself has taken questions from some mainstream outlets such as USA TODAY, ABC News and Reuters, although he has called on right-leaning media such as Breitbart, the Daily Mail and the Washington Times, far more frequently.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer Prefers Conservative News Outlets

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James Brady Press Briefing Room, 2007. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

An analysis by the New York Times suggests that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has preferred questions from journalists representing non-traditional and center-right news outlets over mainstream journalists in his daily press briefings.

Historically, administrations have prioritized questions from journalists sitting in the first two rows of the briefing room, normally assigned to reporters representing mainstream media such as NPR, Associated Press, Fox News and Reuters. Spicer has avoided this tradition and has focused his attention more on “non-mainstream” journalists elsewhere in the briefing room.

In his first Q&A session on the job, Spicer granted the first question to a New York Post journalist who had written a book critical of the Clintons. His second question came from the conservative website LifeZette, founded by radio personality Laura Ingraham (who was also considered by Trump for the press secretary position). None of his first five questions in his first briefing were asked from the front two rows of mainstream outlets.  He regularly gives priority during briefings to journalists from conservative-leaning titles such as Breitbart, Newsmax and One America News Network.

In comparison, former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ first five questions in the initial 2009 Obama administration press briefing went to journalists representing mainstream outlets from the first two rows in the seating chart: Associated Press, CBS News, NBC News, ABC News and CNN.

Speaking with Sean Hannity in January, Spicer defended his decision:

“There are voices and issues that the mainstream media sometimes don’t capture, and it’s important for those issues to get as much prominence as some of the mainstream ones.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association – not the administration — has doled out seating assignments in the Press Room since 1981. Additional reporters with no seat assignment stand in the aisles of the room or sit in empty seats.

Trump Administration Boycotts CNN

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Photo courtesy of Pixabay / Geralt.

CNN will no longer receive officials from the Trump Administration for on-air interviews and commentary, according to a report on Politico.

President Donald Trump has criticized CNN as “fake news” frequently since Election Day.

An anonymous White House official said “we’re sending surrogates to places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda.” The official acknowledged the ban is not intended to be permanent.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied the administration was freezing out CNN, noting that he continues to take questions from the network’s journalists during regular daily briefings. He also defended the administration’s decision not to send spokespeople to the network for on-air coverage.

“I’m not going to sit around and engage with people who have no desire to actually get something right,” Spicer said at an event at George Washington University on Monday.

Former WH Press Secretaries Warn About Trump’s Press Relationship

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James Brady Press Briefing Room. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

In a recent interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” several former White House press secretaries issued warnings and concerns about the incoming Trump White House and its relationship with the media.

“We’ve just elected a man who bullies female reporters at his rally as an applause line,” said Nicole Wallace, communications director under former President George W. Bush. “We have just elected a man who started a hot war with a female anchor instead of attending a debate she moderated. We are in a new place. And I don’t think it’s good. And I don’t think it has any parallels to the past.”

Bill Clinton’s press secretary, Joe Lockhart, warned over Trump’s tendency to ignore or simply make up facts. “It’s somewhat Orwellian, which, you know, you redefine the past, which means you can define the present and the future,” Lockhart said. “And that’s going to be very difficult for both sides to come to grips with.”

Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary under Bush, addressed the mutual animosity between the press and Trump. Especially with public confidence in the press at historic lows, “the press has made itself vulnerable, because it lost the trust of their readers and their viewers — and Trump has widely taken advantage of it,” Fleischer concluded.

FORMER WH PRESS SECRETARY CALLS FOR NEW RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WHITE HOUSE, PRESS CORPS

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Mike McCurry and Tammy Haddad. Photo courtesy of Haddad Media.

Mike McCurry and Tammy Haddad. Photo courtesy of Haddad Media.

During a Q&A session with National Journal, Mike McCurry, White House press secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency, suggested a new relationship between the incoming Trump administration and reporters, especially dealing with protective press pools and televised daily briefings.

Recently, the Trump transition team has breached protocol by travelling multiple times unannounced without his assigned press pool and by failing to notify reporters of the President-elect’s schedule.

Speaking about the protective press pools, McCurry said they can often be a waste of time.

“I think having a bunch of talented journalists sitting around a country club sipping Arnold Palmers while the president plays golf is an utter waste of time and a drain on news organization budgets that are already strained,” McCurry said, referring to where the pool normally works from while President Barack Obama is golfing. “So, yes, I think adjusting the terms of engagement for the protective pool makes sense.”

Instead of focusing on press pools that could result in reporters’ time spent on non-newsworthy information, McCurry called on the media to fight for more reliable access to senior transition and administration officials.

“The White House press corps should fight for things that really matter like access to senior officials, more openness when it comes to sharing of documents and regular ‘real’ briefings from senior decision-makers and staff,” McCurry said.

He also criticized the current state of daily briefings, stating they have devolved into stagesmanship instead of producing newsworthy information.

“The daily briefing has become less than helpful and I bear responsibility for that because I let it become a televised event. It should not be,” McCurry said. “It should be embargoed until completion and not carried ‘live’ except in unusual circumstances…like real news happening.”

Press Veterans vs. Obama White House Press Corps

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Some of the biggest names in the news business complained about the relationship between the White House press corps and the Obama White House accusing the press of being too deferential to President Obama.

Former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry moderated a panel on the 50th anniversary of the first televised presidential news conference which was conducted by John F. Kennedy.  Panelists included Sid Davis, Haynes Johnson, Don Larrabee, John Palmer, and Sander Vanocur.

When talking about the current press corps, Davis said, “I don’t like today’s news conferences” with the president. Kennedy’s, he says, were “thoroughly unrehearsed, natural and they worked to a large extent.” Today’s versions, he adds, “look like they are rehearsed.”

U.S. News and World Report’s Paul Bedard reported on the forum; to read his full story, click here.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to leave White House

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UPDATE (4:54 PM): In today’s White House press briefing Robert Gibbs confirmed he was leaving the White House and when asked about leaving and what his next steps were, Gibbs responded, “that is it is an honor and a privilege to stand here, to work inside this building, to serve your country, to work for a President that I admire as much as President Barack Obama. I’ve been a member of his staff for almost seven years, and it’s — again, it’s a remarkable privilege.  It is in many ways the opportunity of a lifetime, one that I will be forever thankful and grateful for. What I’m going to do next is step back a little bit, recharge some.  We’ve been going at this pace for at least four years.  I will have an opportunity I hope to give some speeches. I will continue to provide advice and counsel to this building and to this President.  And I look forward to continuing to do that.”

To view the full press briefing and Gibbs statement click here.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs will be leaving the White House briefing room podium in early February according to a New York Times article from this morning.

Gibbs will continue to be an adviser to President Obama and will work on his re-election campaign as well as hit the speaking circuit.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks with Robert Gibbs at the White House

President Obama commented on Gibbs’ departure to the New York Times in a brief phone interview, saying: “We’ve been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004… He’s had a six-year stretch now where basically he’s been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it’s natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House.”  The President declined to comment on who would be replacing him but said “You’ll be seeing announcements in due course.”