White House Correspondents’ Association Edges Toward Irrelevance in Trump’s Second Term

The White House Correspondents’ Association was created by worried journalists in 1914 after President Wilson threatened to end all presidential news conferences, citing “certain evening newspapers” quoting remarks he had declared to be off the record. Eleven journalists signed the proclamation creating the association, including Ames Brown of The New York Sun.One hundred and eleven years later, the association is struggling to stay alive as President Trump takes control of who has access to the White House, going so far as to revoke some of the Associated Press’s privileges for what he says is its biased coverage of his administration. Things have gotten weird in the last week. First, the association dropped the invited entertainer — a Black, gay woman who made clear she was going to bash Mr. Trump exclusively — at its annual black-tie bacchanalia, Washington’s so-called “nerd prom.” The president has yet to announce if he’ll attend, but he skipped all four dinners during his previous term, and few expect him to show up to the Washington Hilton ballroom on April 26.Then the White House announced that it would be rejiggering the seating chart in the 49-seat James S. Brady Briefing Room, prompting threats from the press corps that it would hold a Civil Rights era-style “sit-in” protest, “in which members would return to their old seats and refuse to leave them,” according to one report.The power of the correspondents’ association has grown over the years, mostly with the acquiescence of the sitting president. The association decides who gets a seat in the briefing room — and where they sit. The front row has long been held by the liberal networks and the top wire services, with conservative publications often relegated to the back rows — if they get a seat at all.Yet Mr. Trump and his top aides are reportedly about to change all that by revamping who gets in and where they sit, ending the association’s decades-old tradition. A senior White House official told Axios that plans have already been formalized for a “fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today.”On Monday, the association — which represents more than 60 news organizations that regularly cover the president — officially fought back, saying in an email to members that it objects to the White House plan.“If the White House pushes forward, it will become even more clear that the administration is seeking to cynically seize control of the system through which the independent press organizes itself, so that it is easier to exact punishment on outlets over their coverage,” the board wrote.It’s the second slight in as many months for the association. In February, the White House began deciding who was in the so-called “tight” pool” — the small group of reporters who serve as the eyes and ears of all correspondents in confined areas, like the Oval Office and Air Force One.The association, which has controlled that function for decades, said in response: “In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”Yet the association caved quickly, saying in a statement last week that it would no longer coordinate which news organizations were in the tight pool, putting the onus on reporters by saying, “Each of your organizations will have to decide whether or not you will take part in these new, government-appointed pools.”The drama played out just days after the administration won a temporary ruling that allows it to ban the Associated Press from pooled events. On the same day, the White House removed the Huffington Post from the tight pool, telling its correspondent in a late-night text informing him that he would no longer be granted access.Despite the slights, the association has been loathe to cancel its annual dinner, a lavish affair complete with red carpet and paparazzi that is attended by more than 2,000 movers and shakers inside the Beltway. There’s been drama there, too, with the board axing its planned entertainment just weeks before the dinner.Last month, the association board announced that Amber Ruffin, a writer on “The Late Show with Seth Meyers,” would be the featured comedian. Board president Eugene Daniels, who is openly gay, had been effusive in his praise for Ms. Ruffin, also openly gay, when he announced the gig. “Amber’s unique talents are the ideal fit for this current political and cultural climate,” he said. “Her perspective will fit right in with the dinner’s tradition of honoring the freedom of the press while roasting the most powerful people on all sides of the aisle and the journalists who cover them.”Mr. Daniels, incidentally, recently announced he was leaving his previous post as a reporter for the inside-the-beltway Bible, Politico, to take on a role as a commentator on the hyper-liberal MSNBC, providing fresh grist for those in the administration who say the association is hopelessly biased against Mr. Trump.On Saturday, though, he suddenly announced in a statement that the board had unanimously decided to cancel her performance “to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division.” Yet Ms. Ruffin had made clear she was about to do just that, saying in an appearance on the Daily Beast podcast last week that the Trump White House is staffed with “murderers.”She said she was told by the correspondents’ association that “you need to be equal and make sure that you give it to both sides and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be freaking doing that, dude, under no circumstances.’”She doubled down on that stance shortly after she was fired from the gig, saying on the “Late Night” show on Monday that “if they had let me give that speech, ooh, baby! I would have been so terrifically mean.” She also mocked the correspondents association as weak-kneed, asking sarcastically: “We have a free press so that we can be nice to Republicans at fancy dinners?”In the end, the press corps should be happy they’re still even in the White House. Reporters are there at the invitation of the president, and in Mr. Trump’s case, he mulled having them moved next door to the Old Executive Office Building when he took office in 2017. “The press went crazy, so I said, ‘Let’s not move it,’” he said back then.

White House Correspondents’ Association Edges Toward Irrelevance in Trump’s Second Term

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