The White House shut down the special access that wire services have long enjoyed to presidential events, as President Trump continues his battle against The Associated Press.
Rather than restore AP to the news organizations’ pool that has daily access to Mr. Trump, the White House decided to eliminate all wire service special access, which means Reuters and Bloomberg are now on the outside along with AP journalists.
The move is designed to get around a federal judge’s ruling last week that the White House discriminated against AP, ordering that the wire service’s access be restored to the level it enjoyed for decades.
Mr. Trump has targeted AP for continuing to use “Gulf of Mexico” in its coverage, rather than the new official U.S. government term Gulf of America for the body of water south of Louisiana, west of Florida and east of Mexico.
AP says the result is an unconstitutional strike at its news independence — and damage to the world’s news consumers.
“The new policy abandons the longstanding role of wire services, which have been included in the pool since its inception to assure that White House reporting reaches the broadest possible audience in the United States and around the globe as quickly and reliably as possible,” AP said in a court filing on Wednesday accusing the White House of ignoring U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden’s ruling.
Judge McFadden scheduled a hearing for Friday.
The argument is over access to the pool of reporters that gets special access to the president during events in the Oval Office and on Air Force One.
Traditionally that pool included a member of the print media, a TV crew and a radio reporter, all of whom rotate among organizations. It also usually included four photojournalists and reporters for three wire services, Reuters, Bloomberg and AP.
The print media representative and the radio and TV journalists share their reporting with the rest of the White House press corps — pooling their reporting.
The Trump White House has upended the arrangements.
It added extra space for a “new media” reporter, rotating among outlets.
When the White House began its battle against AP, it slashed the wire services to a single reporter, rotating between Bloomberg and Reuters, excluding AP. The news service’s photojournalists were also booted from the photo pool slots.
The new policy adopted this week eliminates the rotating wire service seat altogether, meaning Reuters and Bloomberg no longer have such a spot. Instead, they are allowed to be part of the print outlet rotation.
The new policy also added a secondary TV crew for White House events.
And in an attempt to accommodate Judge McFadden’s order, the new policy declares that “outlets will be eligible for participation in the pool, irrespective of the substantive viewpoint expressed by an outlet.”
Wednesday’s pool consisted of The Washington Times as the print pool seat, NBC as the TV crew, iHeartMedia as the radio slot, The Daily Signal as a secondary print pooler, Christian Broadcasting Network as the new media spot, and EWTN as a secondary TV crew. The photographers were from Agence France-Presse, Getty, Reuters and The New York Times.
Bloomberg and Reuters criticized the latest developments.
“For decades, the daily presence of the wire services in the press pool has ensured that investors and voters across the United States and around the world can rely on accurate real-time reporting on what the president says and does,” said Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. “We deeply regret the decision to remove that permanent level of scrutiny and accountability.”
Reuters, in a statement, said access to the government “is essential to democracy.”
“Any steps by the U.S. government to limit access to the president threaten that principle, both for the public and the world’s media,” the news service said.
AP said the new White House policy not only eliminates the wire service’s special access, but also makes clear the White House can still block AP from being part of the print rotation.
The new policy reads, “Although eligible outlets will generally rotate through these slots, the White House press secretary shall retain day-to-day discretion to determine composition of the pool. This is necessary to ensure that the president’s message reaches targeted audiences and that outlets with applicable subject-matter expertise are present as events warrant.”
