During all the outbursts about Donald Trump’s vote being a” danger to democracy”, one observantly noted that all the anxiety made sense once you replaced the term “democracy” with “bureaucracy”. Now, as D. C. journo types worry about the risk to a “free click” posed by Trump’s breakdown of the White House Correspondents ‘ Association dominance, replacing “free click” with” corporate media’s command of news narratives” provides similar clarity.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that the White House would have the final say regarding writers ‘ access to President Trump in the “most personal spots” like the Oval Office as part of the 13-member hit share. Prior to the formation of the White House Correspondents ‘ Association ( WHCA ), a group of” D.C. based journalists” had control over this access.
” Legacy media outlets”, including” the five major television networks”, would still be included in the rotation, Leavitt clarified, but so would outlets that have “long been denied the privilege” of close access to the president.
In response, the WHCA — led by the manicured ( and often, for some reason, caped ) Eugene Daniels of Politico — released a four-paragraph statement claiming the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States”.
Other corporate press members quickly joined in and made similar “free press” talking points.
The editors of the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, and Reuters co-wrote a statement noting” an independent, free press” is “essential in a democracy”, and declaring that such a “principle” would be” threaten]ed ]” by any limitation of the AP’s, Bloomberg’s, or Reuters ‘ special White House access. Former WHCA President KellyO’Donnell of NBC News urged readers to” Show your support for a free press.” Jim VandeHei, the CEO of Axios, cautioned that” Trump is setting a new precedent for tight, punitive government control over a free press.”
The New York Times, in a story about the change, quoted its own spokesman to call the change” an effort to undermine the public’s access to independent, trustworthy information”. The move, according to the paper’s chief White House correspondent, made him think of Putin.
Even Chuck Todd, a former” Meeet the Press” host whose journalistic credentials include airing a falsely edited clip of Bill Barr and asking Vivek Ramaswamy if he knew there are two sexes” as a scientist,” left his semi-retirement to join the “free press” panic.
However, the corporate press and the WHCA’s executive directors haven’t actually been concerned for a while about the security of the fourth estate. They were the ones, after all, who spread the Russia collusion hoax, the character assassination of Brett Kavanaugh, the narrative that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, propaganda about Covid lockdowns and masks and vaccines and the virus ‘ origins, etc., etc. And all that special White House access they’ve enjoyed? They helped cover up Biden’s cognitive decline for years because they were running for reelection, despite having more opportunities than almost anyone else to observe him closely.
Legacy media outlets just so happened to be exactly in line with what Democrats in Washington were saying in each of those cases. An independent press does not operate in that manner.
The WHCA is so “independent” in fact that it gave Courtney Subramanian of the Los Angeles Times a seat on its board after being caught asking a question that had been sent to the White House in advance. It is so committed to freedom of “access” that it refused to take a position when the Biden White House revoked the “hard passes” of 442 reporters, roughly a third of the journalists who held such credentials.
The media are pearl-clutching about a “free press” because it’s not as empathy-inducing to say,” Donald Trump is a threat to the legacy media cartel’s monopoly over The Narrative”. They’re afraid of losing, and that’s why they’re so offended that the Trump administration won’t let them block access to the White House and box alternative media.
Outlets with a history of success, such as The AP or The New York Times, have enjoyed being able to use their influence to pursue political foes without fear of repercussions. When Trump sued ABC News falsely and claimed to have been held accountable for rape, the group won a$ 15 million verdict.
Big Media is still licking its wounds from Trump’s election in November, which they rightly took personally. Remember that unidentified TV executive who argued a week before the election that a Trump victory meant the mainstream media was dead in its current form? After calling Trump a “public enemy,” The media failed in their eight-year campaign to prevent him from running for president.
They have significantly weakened since that agonizing defeat, but they still feel very strongly about preserving what power they have left. The WHCA gatekeepers ‘ rejection is yet another significant blow to their monopoly, and it’s a good thing for real press freedom because they have shown themselves unwilling to use their privileges to serve the public.
Elle Purnell is the elections editor at The Federalist. Her work has been featured by Fox Business, RealClearPolitics, the Tampa Bay Times, and the Independent Women’s Forum. She received her B. A. in government from Patrick Henry College and a journalism minor. Follow her on Twitter @_ellepurnell.
