The White House plans to seize control of the briefing room seating chart, escalating its fight with the group of journalists who cover it.
The move—expected in the coming weeks, according to Axios—will strip the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) of its longstanding control over where reporters sit in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. The front row has typically been afforded to broadcast networks CNN, NBC, and ABC along with wire services such as Reuters and the Associated Press. In
The decision also comes weeks after the White House took control over the press corps that determines which reporters cover the president on a daily basis, rankling members of the organization who said the White House was exerting undue influence over the independent body. In February, the White House banned the Associated Press after the organization refused to refer to the “Gulf of Mexico” and the “Gulf of America”—a change the president declared via executive order.
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The White House did not respond to an immediate request for comment. Eugene Daniels, the president of the WHCA, also did not respond to an immediate request for comment.
A White House official told Axios it wanted to further change how reporters were seated in the briefing room, offering seats to traditional print and TV organizations in addition to “new media” organizations like Punchbowl News and Axios.
“The goal isn’t merely favorable coverage,” the official told Axios. “It’s truly an honest look at consumption [of the outlets’ coverage]. Influencers are important, but it’s tough because they aren’t [equipped to provide] consistent coverage. So the ability to cover the White House is part of the metrics.”
The relationship between the White House and those who cover it has been so fraught that one WHCA reporter proposed changing the association’s bylaws to make the White House press secretary its president, according to Axios. The White House official told the outlet the idea was “interesting,” but they doubted the WHCA board would agree.
The Associated Press has filed a lawsuit challenging its exclusion from White House events—an effort the WHCA has supported. The AP argued in court this week that the White House’s ban has left the news organization “dead in the water.“
