The White House reportedly has plans to take over the seating chart in the briefing room, a power once held by the far-left White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA).
Currently, the seating arrangement is controlled by the WHCA, and conservative outlets like The Gateway Pundit, One America News Network, and Real America’s Voice are pushed to the sides of the room where we can only hope to catch the press secretary’s eye for a question.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced last month that the WHCA will no longer hold its iron grip over deciding which outlets get to participate in the coveted White House press pool and cover more intimate areas in the White House. Since then, Leavitt has introduced a New Media rotation for pool reporters to cover the President in the Oval Office, on Air Force One, and other spaces where only a limited number of reporters can access.
Now, the White House is expected to expand the New Media pool to the White House briefing room seats.
“This administration is shaking up Washington in more ways than one,” Leavitt said previously, noting, “that’s what we were elected to do.”
This comes after the Associated Press asked a federal judge to grant an emergency Temporary Restraining Order against the Trump Administration and restore its access to areas in the White House after the far-left outlet was booted from the Oval Office this month over its refusal to acknowledge President Trump’s executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”
A federal judge later denied the Associated Press’s emergency motion to restore its access to the White House press pool. The Associated Press had a second hearing Thursday, where they again asked for reinstatement to the press pool. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden, a Trump appointee, has not made a decision in the case.
Per Axios,
Discussing the coming seating chart, the senior White House official said plans have already been formalized for a “fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today.”
- The new layout will include representatives of TV, print and digital outlets. The digital assignments will include both online influencers and newer organizations such as Axios, NOTUS and Punchbowl.
“The goal isn’t merely favorable coverage,” said the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss plans that haven’t been announced. “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.”
- Major legacy outlets will still be included. But expect some to have diminished visibility compared with their customary spots in the first few rows. “We want to balance disruption with responsibility,” the official said.
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