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Pete Souza Town Hall at White House Historical Association

December 14, 2022 By WHC Insider

Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association, hosted a town hall event on Monday at Decatur House with Pete Souza, former White House photographer and author of the new book, The West Wing and Beyond: What I Saw Inside the Presidency.

Souza – who served as an official White House photographer under President Ronald Reagan and the chief official White House photographer under President Barack Obama – was interviewed about his experiences by McLaurin in front of a live audience. Guests were greeted with a welcome reception and holiday shopping at the Association’s gift shop, and Pete signed personalized copies of The West Wing and Beyond. 

During the conversation, McLaurin asked Souza to reflect on some of the most famous and poignant photos he captured at the White House, including the late Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta at a Reagan State Dinner.

Pete Souza / The White House

Souza also shared his private experiences with the first families, including what it was like being the only person in the room during an intimate family moment aboard the presidential aircraft with Mrs. Nancy Reagan and her son and daughter-in-law kneeling over the coffin as President Reagan’s body was flown from California to Washington to lie in state.

Pete Souza / Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

As the director of the White House photo office during President Obama’s entire time in office, Souza reflected on one of his most compelling photos taken during those 8 years (one he did not fully appreciate until much later) – when President Obama leaned over in the Oval Office so a young African-American boy could touch his hair – and what that moment represents for so many.

Pete Souza / The White House

The Pete Souza Town Hall was live streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter as part of the Association’s popular White House History Live series, which was launched during the pandemic.

Watch the full video here. View the photo gallery here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Barack Obama, DC, Nancy Reagan, Pete Souza, Ronald Reagan, Stewart McLaurin, White House, White House Historical Association

White House Correspondents' Association Protests Obama White House

November 21, 2013 By Tammy Haddad

It’s only the 5th year of the Obama Administration but the White House Correspondents’ Association has had enough. The Obama White House has been pushing White House coverage limits by having their own photographer,the great Pete Souza, cover most of his events and distributing his photos instead of the press getting access.The White House communicators are fighting back saying previous administrations have done the same. FishbowlDC’s new editor Patrick Tutwiler shows us the letter.

November 21, 2013

Jay Carney
Press Secretary
The White House

VIA HAND DELIVERY

Dear Mr. Carney:
We write to protest the limits on access currently barring photographers who cover the White House. We hope this letter will serve as the first step in removing these restrictions and, therefore, we also request a meeting with you to discuss this critical issue further. Journalists are routinely being denied the right to photograph or videotape the President while he is performing his official duties. As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the Executive Branch of government. To be clear, we are talking about Presidential activities of a fundamentally public nature. To be equally clear, we are not talking about open access to the residence or to areas restricted, for example, for national security purposes.

The apparent reason for closing certain events to photographers is that these events have been deemed “private.” That rationale, however, is undermined when the White House contemporaneously releases its own photograph of a so-called private event through social media. The restrictions imposed by the White House on photographers covering these events, followed by the routine release by the White House of photographs made by government employees of these same events, is an arbitrary restraint and unwarranted interference on legitimate newsgathering activities. You are, in effect, replacing independent photojournalism with visual press releases.

All of the following events, with the exception of the McCain-Graham meeting, were reported as “read-outs” by the White House with “official” White House photo(s) attached. They illustrate the troubling breadth of the restrictions placed upon newsgathering by the White House to record governmental activity of undisputed and wide public interest:
• On July 10, 2013, the President met with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
• On July 11, 2013, the President met with the Co-Chairs of the U.S. – China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.
• On July 29, 2013, the President met with former Secretary of State Clinton (White House photo also distributed via Twitter).
• On July 30, 2013, the President and Vice President met with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators.
• On August 26, 2013, the President met with African-American Faith Leaders.
• On September 2, 2013, the President met with Senators McCain and Graham.
• On October. 11, 2013, the President and family members met with Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai, a person of great public interest.
While certain of these events may appear “private” in nature, the decision of the White House to release its own contemporaneous photograph(s) suggests that the White House believes these events are, in fact, newsworthy and not private.

The right of journalists to gather the news is most critical when covering government officials acting in their official capacities. Previous administrations have recognized this, and have granted press access to visually cover precisely these types of events, thus creating government transparency. It is clear that the restrictions imposed by your office on photographers undercut the President’s stated desire to continue and broaden that tradition. To exclude the press from these functions is a major break from how previous administrations have worked with the press.

Moreover, these restrictions raise constitutional concerns. As the Supreme Court has stated, the First Amendment protects “the public and the press from abridgment of their rights of access to information about the operation of their government,” Richmond Newspapers Inc. v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555, 584 (1980). The fact that there is no access whatsoever only heightens those concerns. As one court has noted in considering a similar restriction: “The total exclusion of television representatives from White House pool coverage denies the public and the press their limited right of access, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.” Cable News Network, Inc. v. American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., et al. 518 F.Supp. 1238, 1245 (N.D. GA 1981).

The organizations and individuals signing this letter strongly believe that imposing limits on press access, as your office has done, represents a troubling precedent with a direct and adverse impact on the public’s ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing.

We consider this a most serious matter and urge you to provide appropriate access for independent photojournalists to all public governmental events in which the President
participates. Again, we see this letter as the first step toward restoring full press access to these events. Accordingly, we request an immediate meeting with you in order to resolve this very serious situation. We ask that you contact Steve Thomma, President of the White House Correspondents’ Association, and Sam Feist, current television pool chair, to set up the meeting.

Thank you.
ABC News
Agence France-Presse
American Society of News Editors
American Society of Media Photographers
Associated Press
Associated Press Media Editors
Associated Press Photo Managers
Association of Alternative Newsmedia
Association of Opinion Journalists
Bloomberg News
CBS News
CNN
Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Fox News Channel
Gannett Co., Inc.
Getty Images
Lee Enterprises, Incorporated
The McClatchy Company
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
National Press Club
National Press Photographers Association
NBC News
New England First Amendment Coalition
News Media Coalition
Newspaper Association of America
The New York Times Company
Online News Association
Professional Photographers of America
Radio Television Digital News Association
Regional Reporters Association
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
Reuters
Society of Professional Journalists
Tribune Company
The Washington Post
White House Correspondents’ Association
White House News Photographers Association
Yahoo! Inc.

Filed Under: Correspondents, News Tagged With: Jay Carney, Pete Souza, President Obama, White House Correspondents Association

Air Force One: Riding the "Bird" with President Obama and Jon Meacham

June 8, 2009 By Tammy Haddad

Obama, Meacham, Gibbs, Haddad in

It is always different; the way a White House informs you that you have the President of the United States for an interview. Sometimes it’s a call to warn an important call is coming, and you better agree to the conditions. Often it is four to six people calling to claim credit for making the interview happen. But, as in most things with Obama, this is a drama free process: just an email asking where you can be reached. This email is from Dan Pfeiffer, deputy communications director of the Obama White House, and the cool and collected center of the daily press hub since the beginning of the campaign.

Newsweek, along with everyone else, had a request in to the White House to get more of President Obama’s words on the record. The interview is for Jon Meacham, named Newsweek editor at 29, now just 40. Meacham is a poet-historian and, like Obama, a bestselling author. Pfeiffer’s email advises that we will get our interview and it will be on Air Force One. Despite no video or audio, we were pleased and I reply, “We are in.” There was a quick handover to the operations folks for details of the trip to Phoenix for the President’s commencement address at Arizona State University.

Meacham and AF OneI ask Meacham if he’s ever been on Air Force One, and he said only at the Reagan Library. My only time was during my stint running MSNBC’s 2004 election coverage when 30 Rock was transformed into “Democracy Plaza,” — a piece of an Air Force One plane was part of the plaza-wide exhibition.

Meacham and I meet up with Newsweek star photographer Khue Bui, a White House press corps veteran and delightful campaign trail mate, who will round out the Newsweek Air Force One team. We arrive at Andrews Air Force Base looking like the desk jockeys we are; editors and producers aren’t usually allowed out of their bureaus.

We watch as the entire White House traveling press corps arrives for a security check; however, they’ll be traveling on the press charter plane departing ahead of Air Force One.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: News Media, White House Staff Tagged With: Air Force One, Ben Finkenbinder, Dan Pfeiffer, Ellen Eckert, Jon Meacham, Jonathan Martin, Katie Hogan, Khue Bui, Newsweek, Pete Souza, Robert Gibbs, Samantha Buchan, Sarah Hurwitz, Savannah Guthrie

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About White House Correspondents Insider

Exploring “behind the scenes” of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

We track the White House Correspondents’ weekend and all the activities around it, from journalists and media companies to the White House and politicos.

Tammy Haddad is Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief of WHC Insider and CEO of Haddad Media.

White House Correspondents Insider is not affiliated with or approved by the White House Correspondents’ Association, which is a registered trademark of the WHCA.

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