The White House is making changes to which outlets are included in the press pool covering President Trump, and doing away with the spot normally reserved for wire services covering his daily activities.
A source in the West Wing confirmed the changes to The Hill on Tuesday evening and said moving forward, the press pool will be made up of the following group: one print journalist who will serve as the “print pooler” each day, one additional print journalist, a crew from one of the major television networks, a crew from a secondary television network or streaming service, one radio journalist, one “new media” or independent journalist and four photojournalists.
The White House official said eligible outlets will be chosen for the pool on a rotating basis, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will retain day-to-day discretion to determine composition of the pool.
Wire-based outlets will be eligible for selection as part of the pool’s daily print-journalist rotation as part of the shake-up, but they will no longer have a permanent slot in the group.
The official said outlets will be eligible for participation in the pool, “irrespective of the substantive viewpoint expressed by an outlet.”
The changes come just days after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to restore The Associated Press’s access to key White House spaces after it banned AP reporters over the outlet’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” in its widely cited stylebook.
Other outlets such as Bloomberg and Reuters typically served in the dedicated wire service slot and will now be only eligible to serve in the pool by being selected as a “print pooler” on a given day.
Posted by John3262005
1 Comment
Disgusting and blatant way to try and get around the AP ban being ruled unconstitutional. (AP is a wire service)