Trump Administration Set to Remake Reporters’ Seating Chart

The relationships between the Trump administration and the body of the press of the White House have deteriorated further on Monday, while the journalists rejected new plans to modify their work agreements in the west wing.

The last scaramuccia came when the administration said that she would consider the idea of ​​taking control of the ranking of journalists in the briefing room of the press of James S. Brady, which for decades was determined by the association of the correspondents of the White House, a group of almost 900 journalists who report on the president and on his administration.

Where a journalist sits for television briefing is a symbolic question – it indicates the perceived importance of a specific news outlet – and also a practical one. Journalists in the front lines generally get more than their questions addressed by the press secretary during briefing.

In a note to the members, the board of directors of the correspondent association accused Trump officials of looking for “of exercising pressure on journalists on the coverage with which I disagree”.

“The White House should abandon this Wrongheeded effort and show the American people who are not afraid to explain their policies and questions on the field by an independent media free from the government control,” wrote the Council.

A change in the ranking of places is equivalent to another invasion by the helpers of President Trump in the daily procedures of the journalists who cover them. The officials of the White House now choose and choose some stores to participate in the presidential print pool and journalists of the Associated Press They have been prohibited to participate in certain events.

The briefing room is a narrow space, built on a former swimming pool, where journalists often crowd in corners and cracks to have the opportunity to ask a question of the press secretary during briefing which are often live on live on cable TV. Assios For the first time The potential plans of the White House to reorganize the assignments for the 49 permanent places in the room.

Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary of the White House, has framed the changes of the administration as an effort to encourage employees in the “new media” stores-which Podcaster, a right talk-show hosts and streaming-for-to-journalists sites in large Legacy organizations such as the CNN, Reuters and the New York Times to cover the White House.

“We believe it is basically unfair that a group of elitist journalists based in DC can choose who can cover the president of the United States,” said Mrs. Leavitt in an interview on Fox News on Monday. “The media have changed a lot in the decades of the press coverage here in the White House, and it is time that the coverage changes with it.”

The association of correspondents includes members of dozens of news organizations, small and large, and has regularly reassigned the places in the press room – although often in the rear files – to journalists who work for the media. The main seats on the graph are generally reserved for large news organizations that use non -partisan journalists.

“In order for the public to obtain the information he needs to understand and make decisions on the most powerful office in the world, he needs news produced by expert journalists and professionals who ask difficult questions and produce an equitable coverage,” said the Association’s advice in his note.

The Director of Communications of the White House, Steven Cheung, responded on social media describing the president of the association as “stupid”. Mrs. Leavitt described the group’s response as “basically inerous”.

The previous presidents of both sides mitigated by the determination of the printing body of the White House alone to which journalists was granted greater access. But conservative organizations such as Breitbart News have long complained about the fact that the association has too much influence in determining which journalists they get your favorite access to the president or the press secretary.

Many podcaster, influencers and smaller partisans sales points do not have the resources or staff to regularly cover the president’s daily activities, which often involves expensive travel and meticulous transcriptions of his observations.

Tensions also reflected in the changing plans for the annual dinner of this year of the White Association house, an event that in previous eras was considered a moment of committee between the president and his press body.

From the first term of Mr. Trump, the collegial atmosphere around the event broke. Mrs. Leavitt said she was not intended to participate in dinner on April 26th. On Saturday, the correspondent association said he canceled Amber Ruffin’s performance, the programmed entertainer, days after the publication of a podcast in which Mrs. Ruffin mocked Trump’s officials as “a little killers”.

The Trump administration is taking into consideration the idea of ​​hosting a rival event on the night of this year’s dinner and inviting journalists from new media stores and other places outside the traditional news organizations to participate, according to a person informed of the plans.