The Trump administration said Tuesday that it would not book regular slots in the presidential press pool for three independent newswires that have been involved for decades, including the Associated Press.
The move is the latest effort for the White House to provide more control over its dedicated press squad reporting on its daily activities. It is also a new wrinkle in the unfolding legal battle with the Associated Press, which has been forbidden for the past two months from covering small events with the president.
A federal judge last week said the White House must restore full access to Associated Press journalists, and determined that the administration's ban amounts to an initial violation of the amendment. The White House appealed and a hearing is set for Thursday.
The Presidential Press Pool is a small, spinning group of reporters who are granted access to more intimate events with the president, such as an oval office reception, and relay the lawsuit to other journalists and the wider public. This is a logistical accommodation for small spaces that do not suit dozens of reporters, and an opportunity for journalists to interact closely with the president and ask him directly.
In February, breaking decades of bipartisan precedents, the administration said it had started manual work on pool members, stripped control of the independent White House correspondents and condemned the move. “In a free country, leaders must be unable to choose their press corps,” the group said at the time.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released a more specific set of guidelines for the press pool, including the elimination of slots reserved for journalists representing one of the three major newswires of the Associated Press, Bloomberg News and Reuters. (Newswis distributes syndicated news articles, videos and photos to thousands of other media outlets around the United States and around the world, many of whom cannot afford to hire reporters in Washington.
The slot will instead be filled by additional journalists from print media outlets selected from dozens of rotations, Leavitt said. The three Newswire reporters are still eligible to fill in print media slots, but will no longer be granted access to these types of presidential events on a nearly day basis. This change was previously reported by the New York Post.
“The White House Press Secretary shall maintain daily discretion in determining the composition of the pool,” Leavitt said in the memorandum. “This is necessary to ensure that the president's message reaches targeted audiences and that outlets with expertise on the relevant subject exist as warrants for the event.”
Associated Press spokesman Lauren Easton said in a statement Tuesday that the Trump administration's actions “continue to ignore basic American freedoms without government control or retaliation.”
“We are extremely disappointed that the administration has chosen to restrict access to all wire services. Access to all wire services informs billions of people every day, noting the Associated Press back to wire pools, with quick and accurate coverage from the White House,” Easton said.
A Reuters spokesperson said: “We remain committed to covering the White House in a fair, accurate and independent way.”
A Bloomberg spokesperson declined to comment. “This shows that the White House is using new measures to do the same. We will retaliate the report for reports that the White House does not like,” the White House Correspondents Association said in a statement.
President Trump and his allies have embarked on multifaceted efforts to weaken branches of American independence press, filed lawsuits against ABC and CBS, and threatened to revoke broadcast licenses for major networks.
The administration's dispute with the Associated Press comes from the ongoing use of newswire, which continues to use the term “Gulf of Mexico” to refer to the waters Trump renamed America in an executive order.
In response, White House officials in February urged Newswire to file a lawsuit that blocked Associated Press Journalists from joining the press pool and restored its access.
Trump officials say the change is intended to give non-traditional media outlets more opportunities as Americans often consume information from venues beyond traditional news sources. “Legacy media who have been here for many years will still be in the pool, but new voices will be welcomed,” Leavitt said in February.
In February, the Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters issued a joint statement.
“In a democracy, it is essential for the public to access government news from independent, free press,” the statement continued. “We believe that measures by the government to limit the number of wire services that involve access to the President will pose a threat to that principle.”
