White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, announced on Tuesday that they have established New rules for the media And the government itself will decide which journalists can ask Donald Trump, a task that until now corresponded exclusively to the White House correspondents Association (Whca), which was responsible for selecting them.
In a press conference, Leavitt announced that, from now accompany the president of the United States in their actions and transmit what happened to thousands of reporters who do not fit in the events. “From now on, the White House press team will determine who integrates the” pool “of the press,” he said.
For almost a century, the tradition in the White House is that the “pool” covers the president, since there is not enough space for the hundreds of journalists who want to follow their acts in the oval office, in other rooms where it offers speeches or even In the presidential aircraft Air Force One.
The selection of journalists with access to that “pool” has traditionally been the responsibility of the Association of correspondents of the White House (WHCA), founded in 1914 by journalists in response to an unfounded rumor that a Congress Committee wanted to decide which reporters They could attend the press conferences of then President Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921).
White House Changes in the group of journalists
The work of the Whca is to advocate greater access for the hundreds of journalists who cover the White House in the face of the attempts of different administrations to restrict it.
In addition, select through a Rigorous process to the members of the “pool” that can attend the presidential acts and act as the eyes and ears of the rest of the reporters.
The president of the Whca, Eugene Daniels, condemned the announcement of the White House because, he said, “Attentive against the independence of free press in the United States.”
“It suggests that the government will choose journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders should not be able to choose the press team,” he said in a statement.
The group of journalists who follows the president is usually composed of between 13 and 14 peoplealthough in some cases it can be extended up to about 20. Within this group, there are journalists designated as “poolers” for different media: one for the written press, another for radio and others for television. The changes announced by the White House are yet to be defined And it is unknown how they will materialize.
This measure occurs in a context of confrontation with the Associated Press (AP) news agency, to which the administration has restricted access to the “pool”, preventing Trump from asking, due to its decision to continue calling the Gulf of Mexico By its traditional name, instead of the new term “Gulf of America” adopted by the president.
AP has filed a demand before the courtsarguing that Trump’s decision violates the right to press freedom collected in the first amendment of the Constitution. However, this Monday a judge determined that the Administration may continue to veto its access, although it asked him to reconsider his decision.
Source: Lasexta
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