- The move follows the Trump administration's decision to exclude the AP from its press pool.
WASHINGTON: The White House said Tuesday it will decide which media organizations will be part of the press pool covering the president, wresting control from a group of journalists that has done so for decades.
Carolyn Leavitt, a spokeswoman for President Donald Trump, said that while traditional media organizations will still be allowed to cover the president, the administration plans to change who will participate. The pool system allows select television, radio, wire, print and photo journalists to cover events in small spaces like the Oval Office and share their stories with the wider media.
The move follows the Trump administration's decision to exclude the Associated Press from the press pool because it refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America (Trump's nickname for the body of water) or update its widely used style to reflect the change.
“For decades, a group of Washington journalists, the White House Correspondents' Association, dictated which journalists could ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate of places. That's gone,” Leavitt said at a press briefing.
“Going forward, the composition of the White House press group will be determined by the White House press group,” she said, referring to White House staff.
The WHCA, which previously coordinated the pool rotation, said it did so to ensure uniform professional standards and fair access by the public.
“This move undermines the independence of the free press in the United States. It assumes that the government will choose the journalists who will cover the president. In a free country, leaders should not be able to choose their own press corps,” said WHCA President Eugene Daniels.
Reuters is a member of the press pool and Reuters reporters are members of the WHCA.
Leavitt said the five major cable and broadcast television networks will continue to hold their rotating spots in the pool, while the White House will add streaming services. Rotating print and radio reporters will continue to be included, while new channels and radio hosts will be added.
“We're going to make decisions now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office later in the day when asked about the upcoming move.
A federal judge on Monday rejected the AP's request to immediately restore full access for its reporters to joint events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One, where Trump regularly holds question-and-answer sessions with reporters.
