7 ms·

These press briefings provide direct, multilateral, and unmoderated access to the Presidential Administration by the Press Corps. They are incredibly important

These press briefings provide direct, multilateral, and unmoderated access to the Presidential Administration by the Press Corps. They are incredibly important to holding the administration to account for policy. Can the administration spin their own narrative? Sure, but they can't directly control or audit the questions asked.

sidlls 10y ago
Now if only an actual Press Corps existed in this country.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
maxerickson 10y ago
Depends on if they start excluding organizations and lining up softballs from cranks.
- ___start 10y ago
  yes but all Presidents do this, including Obama
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - wfo 10y ago
    Please name a news organization that was allowed to attend press conferences by Obama, then later banned because he didn't like what they had to say. edit: Since you won't be able to find one by Obama, how about any president in the last 50 years?
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - mason240 10y ago
      >The administration has taken increasing steps in recent weeks and months to isolate the TV network, with some Capitol Hill veterans recalling no such similar steps by any president since Richard Nixon’s retaliation against The New York Times and The Washington Post during Watergate. >“The point is this, and it really needs to be made: Fox is not just another television network,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a close Obama ally. “Fox has become the official/semi-official voice for the Republican Party, in opposition to the president. And I think calling them out is the only way to delegitimize them as political propaganda.” http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/63167-congressional-democrats-defend-white-houses-snub-of-fox-news http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/63167-congression...
      - deleted 10y ago
        [deleted]
      - wfo 10y ago
        Why would you post a link which proves my point for me? >The effort hasn’t been a total blackout; White House press secretary Robert Gibbs still calls on Fox News reporter Major Garrett at press briefings Obama decided not to go on some Fox talk shows one time which apparently hurt their feelings. It would be truly shocking if we had a president who wasn't nice to the press like that. Thank god ours constantly reassures reporters that he would never have them killed, even though he hates them and thinks they are disgusting, and he has to remind us that he thinks people who kill reporters are bad people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxI04hcgRNg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxI04hcgRNg He did not ban them from press conferences, in fact his press secretary called on their reporters.
      - mejari 10y ago
        >White House press secretary Robert Gibbs still calls on Fox News reporter Major Garrett at press briefings So they were still invited to the briefings and still called on. >Obama last month granted five interviews to Sunday political shows to discuss healthcare reform, but he did not sit down with Fox That's the worst he did. >And there is no evidence of any joint strategy by Democrats at either side of Pennsylvania Avenue to coordinate their efforts against Fox. No additional steps or coordinated effort was made to exclude Fox. To call this the same thing is disingenuous and incorrect.
  - heygrady 10y ago
    You are making a false equivalency [1]. Every president has to manage relations with the press but Trump's press relations are not normal. [1] http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-battles-press-20170218-story.html http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-battles-pres...
  - aanm1988 10y ago
    Obama complained about Fox news, but he never acted like this. Who constantly questioned his legitimacy as president, made up the "terrorist fist jab", and gave him shit for asking for fucking dijon mustard.
    - ___start 10y ago
      so what? why should he give any airtime to a media company that has blatantly slandered him, propagated toxic vitriol, and vehemently opposed him?
      - rybosome 10y ago
        Then why should Obama have given any airtime to Fox? Why should the next democratic president? And now you see the problem: suppressing journalism that you don't agree with is a fucking dangerous precedent.
        heygrady 10y ago
        I think you mean that it sets a "dangerous president", as in #unpresidented [1]. [1] http://www.snopes.com/trump-sends-unpresidented-tweet/ http://www.snopes.com/trump-sends-unpresidented-tweet/
        ___start 10y ago
        It's two fold: 1) I agree the President shouldn't suppress journalism so long as it's respectful as that could set a "dangerous" precedent. 2) CNN has been one of the major proponents of the Trump is Hitler/bigot/racist/xenophobe/x_____ist/phobe AND the bullshit, racist, anti-white people narrative started under Obama's watch and they have set a dangerous precedent of abusing their size and power to lead half the country into civil unrest and make them believe that Trump is to blame for all of their problems.
  - tdb7893 10y ago
    Obama didn't exclude news organizations because he didn't like them when he was president as far as I'm aware and if he did I'm going to be just as mad at him as I am at Trump.
    - ___start 10y ago
      did Obama call on conservative leaning publications? I'm pretty sure he favored the ones in the front row, the ones that favored him.
      - mejari 10y ago
        Yes, he did call on conservative leaning publications. Your vague memories are incorrect.
        billfor 10y ago
        December 2012: Several journalists reported that MSNBC hosts were meeting privately with President Obama to discuss the impending “fiscal cliff” fight. May 2013: NPR’s Ari Shapiro reported that President Obama was meeting privately with “lefty columnists,” but hastened to add that there was “nothing nefarious” about it. November 2013: President Obama met again with liberal journalists, as Obamacare struggled with the failure of healthcare.gov and other problems. March 2015: Politico’s media reporter, Hadas Gold, reported that “a group of journalists and columnists,” all on the left, met privately with President Obama, but the White House refused to say “who else was at the meeting or what was discussed.”
        mejari 10y ago
        Where have you copy-pasted this list from and what is it's relevance?
        basurihn 10y ago
        I'm sure if you were at all open to his point, you could really figure it out.
- Dangeranger 10y ago
  This is exactly the strategy the WH is starting to employ. Look at Russian tactics against the press in 2006-2007 and you can predict the WH next move. They are stealing from their playbook. Revoke. Replace. Erode.
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    Maybe Infowars will get the president on the record about Pizzagate.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - drivingmenuts 10y ago
      Alex Jones loves Donald Trump. He's unlikely to hold him to account for anything, except maybe not being paranoid enough, until his audience drops and new ideas come crawling out of whatever hole Alex keeps them in. I would say he's a joke, but it's way creepier than that.
  - jacobush 10y ago
    I hear there are two new administration approved newspapers: The Truth and The News. (Известия)
    - kahnpro 10y ago
      And it's very well known that there is no news in the Truth, and no truth in the News.
  - heygrady 10y ago
    There is a good write up on how Putin manages his media relations and uses it as a "powerful weapon" [1]. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/how-the-media-became-putins-most-powerful-weapon/391062/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/ho...
  - hwang89 10y ago
- tlrobinson 10y ago
  TRUMP: Wait. Let's see. Who's -- I want to find a friendly reporter. QUESTION: Mr.... TRUMP: Are you a friendly reporter? Watch how friendly he is. Wait. Wait. Watch how friendly he is. Go ahead. a few minutes later, with a different reporter: TRUMP: Now, that's what I call a nice question. That is very -- who are you with? http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-transcript/ http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-con...
  - oxide 10y ago
    I thought your comment was a joke at first glance, because I often make jokes in this format. It's an actual transcript. I'm a little flabbergasted.
    - BrailleHunting 10y ago
      The price good people pay for indifference to public affairs (ie populism, corruption and Electoral College ineptitude) is to be ruled by evil simians. -Plato
- BrailleHunting 10y ago
  This is exactly why journalism today is mostly lacking in integrity: journos having to cozy up to and not offend officials to maintain access. Without viable, advarasial news, society is headed towards a precipice of greater corruption and authoritarianism because the press failed to hold leaders accountable for their actions.
- smsm42 10y ago
  You mean softballs like: - Golf, what does it do for you? - How does your golf game hold up next to Tiger’s? - What has enchanted you the most from serving in this office? - In this fatherless world, where did you learn to love? - Are you ready to call yourself the ‘comeback kid’? - You definitely have some impressive accomplishments….And more than a lot of presidents who manage to get reelected. My question is, is it enough? - Have you given up on the Republicans? - I’m wondering if you think that [Republican presidential candidates are] uninformed, out of touch, or irresponsible? All actual questions press asked Obama: http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/15/13-hard-hitting-questions-mainstream-reporters-asked-obama/ http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/15/13-hard-hitting-questions-...
  - redial 10y ago
    Reporters can ask whatever they want, including stupid/uninteresting questions, that's the point. But limiting who can attend is only a move to signal they don't want hard questions and if you ask them you get banned.
    - smsm42 10y ago
      Nobody wants hard questions, as such, but I agree it would be good for the President to allow diversity of viewpoints be represented in the press pool. I'm just saying journalists being soft and submissive towards the government with which they are politically aligned is not exactly the new thing that Trump threatens to unleash on us - it has happened many times before.
      - redial 10y ago
        Allowing only those who are soft to ask questions is new.
        smsm42 10y ago
        Are you sure? Here is the report about closed sessions with reporters that Obama held: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/us/politics/calculated-candor-inside-obamas-off-the-record-briefings.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/us/politics/calculated-ca... It's not that some of the press was excluded, it's not that only "trusted" media was invited, it's that they agreed to not even report on what they talked about or who they met with. I think private meetings with no mention of them and reporting based on this as if they arrived to it by themselves and not were instructed by the administration is much cozier relationship than just being invited or not invited in one briefing.
manigandham 10y ago
> but they can't directly control or audit the questions asked That's exactly what's happening - they're skipping the reporters and now excluding the news organization entirely.

sidlls 10y ago

Now if only an actual Press Corps existed in this country.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

maxerickson 10y ago

Depends on if they start excluding organizations and lining up softballs from cranks.

___start 10y ago
yes but all Presidents do this, including Obama
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- wfo 10y ago
  Please name a news organization that was allowed to attend press conferences by Obama, then later banned because he didn't like what they had to say. edit: Since you won't be able to find one by Obama, how about any president in the last 50 years?
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - mason240 10y ago
    >The administration has taken increasing steps in recent weeks and months to isolate the TV network, with some Capitol Hill veterans recalling no such similar steps by any president since Richard Nixon’s retaliation against The New York Times and The Washington Post during Watergate. >“The point is this, and it really needs to be made: Fox is not just another television network,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a close Obama ally. “Fox has become the official/semi-official voice for the Republican Party, in opposition to the president. And I think calling them out is the only way to delegitimize them as political propaganda.” http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/63167-congressional-democrats-defend-white-houses-snub-of-fox-news http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/63167-congression...
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - wfo 10y ago
      Why would you post a link which proves my point for me? >The effort hasn’t been a total blackout; White House press secretary Robert Gibbs still calls on Fox News reporter Major Garrett at press briefings Obama decided not to go on some Fox talk shows one time which apparently hurt their feelings. It would be truly shocking if we had a president who wasn't nice to the press like that. Thank god ours constantly reassures reporters that he would never have them killed, even though he hates them and thinks they are disgusting, and he has to remind us that he thinks people who kill reporters are bad people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxI04hcgRNg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxI04hcgRNg He did not ban them from press conferences, in fact his press secretary called on their reporters.
    - mejari 10y ago
      >White House press secretary Robert Gibbs still calls on Fox News reporter Major Garrett at press briefings So they were still invited to the briefings and still called on. >Obama last month granted five interviews to Sunday political shows to discuss healthcare reform, but he did not sit down with Fox That's the worst he did. >And there is no evidence of any joint strategy by Democrats at either side of Pennsylvania Avenue to coordinate their efforts against Fox. No additional steps or coordinated effort was made to exclude Fox. To call this the same thing is disingenuous and incorrect.
- heygrady 10y ago
  You are making a false equivalency [1]. Every president has to manage relations with the press but Trump's press relations are not normal. [1] http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-battles-press-20170218-story.html http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-battles-pres...
- aanm1988 10y ago
  Obama complained about Fox news, but he never acted like this. Who constantly questioned his legitimacy as president, made up the "terrorist fist jab", and gave him shit for asking for fucking dijon mustard.
  - ___start 10y ago
    so what? why should he give any airtime to a media company that has blatantly slandered him, propagated toxic vitriol, and vehemently opposed him?
    - rybosome 10y ago
      Then why should Obama have given any airtime to Fox? Why should the next democratic president? And now you see the problem: suppressing journalism that you don't agree with is a fucking dangerous precedent.
      - heygrady 10y ago
        I think you mean that it sets a "dangerous president", as in #unpresidented [1]. [1] http://www.snopes.com/trump-sends-unpresidented-tweet/ http://www.snopes.com/trump-sends-unpresidented-tweet/
      - ___start 10y ago
        It's two fold: 1) I agree the President shouldn't suppress journalism so long as it's respectful as that could set a "dangerous" precedent. 2) CNN has been one of the major proponents of the Trump is Hitler/bigot/racist/xenophobe/x_____ist/phobe AND the bullshit, racist, anti-white people narrative started under Obama's watch and they have set a dangerous precedent of abusing their size and power to lead half the country into civil unrest and make them believe that Trump is to blame for all of their problems.
- tdb7893 10y ago
  Obama didn't exclude news organizations because he didn't like them when he was president as far as I'm aware and if he did I'm going to be just as mad at him as I am at Trump.
  - ___start 10y ago
    did Obama call on conservative leaning publications? I'm pretty sure he favored the ones in the front row, the ones that favored him.
    - mejari 10y ago
      Yes, he did call on conservative leaning publications. Your vague memories are incorrect.
      - billfor 10y ago
        December 2012: Several journalists reported that MSNBC hosts were meeting privately with President Obama to discuss the impending “fiscal cliff” fight. May 2013: NPR’s Ari Shapiro reported that President Obama was meeting privately with “lefty columnists,” but hastened to add that there was “nothing nefarious” about it. November 2013: President Obama met again with liberal journalists, as Obamacare struggled with the failure of healthcare.gov and other problems. March 2015: Politico’s media reporter, Hadas Gold, reported that “a group of journalists and columnists,” all on the left, met privately with President Obama, but the White House refused to say “who else was at the meeting or what was discussed.”
        mejari 10y ago
        Where have you copy-pasted this list from and what is it's relevance?
        basurihn 10y ago
        I'm sure if you were at all open to his point, you could really figure it out.
Dangeranger 10y ago
This is exactly the strategy the WH is starting to employ. Look at Russian tactics against the press in 2006-2007 and you can predict the WH next move. They are stealing from their playbook. Revoke. Replace. Erode.
- maxerickson 10y ago
  Maybe Infowars will get the president on the record about Pizzagate.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - drivingmenuts 10y ago
    Alex Jones loves Donald Trump. He's unlikely to hold him to account for anything, except maybe not being paranoid enough, until his audience drops and new ideas come crawling out of whatever hole Alex keeps them in. I would say he's a joke, but it's way creepier than that.
- jacobush 10y ago
  I hear there are two new administration approved newspapers: The Truth and The News. (Известия)
  - kahnpro 10y ago
    And it's very well known that there is no news in the Truth, and no truth in the News.
- heygrady 10y ago
  There is a good write up on how Putin manages his media relations and uses it as a "powerful weapon" [1]. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/how-the-media-became-putins-most-powerful-weapon/391062/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/04/ho...
- hwang89 10y ago
tlrobinson 10y ago
TRUMP: Wait. Let's see. Who's -- I want to find a friendly reporter. QUESTION: Mr.... TRUMP: Are you a friendly reporter? Watch how friendly he is. Wait. Wait. Watch how friendly he is. Go ahead. a few minutes later, with a different reporter: TRUMP: Now, that's what I call a nice question. That is very -- who are you with? http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-conference-transcript/ http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/politics/donald-trump-news-con...
- oxide 10y ago
  I thought your comment was a joke at first glance, because I often make jokes in this format. It's an actual transcript. I'm a little flabbergasted.
  - BrailleHunting 10y ago
    The price good people pay for indifference to public affairs (ie populism, corruption and Electoral College ineptitude) is to be ruled by evil simians. -Plato
BrailleHunting 10y ago
This is exactly why journalism today is mostly lacking in integrity: journos having to cozy up to and not offend officials to maintain access. Without viable, advarasial news, society is headed towards a precipice of greater corruption and authoritarianism because the press failed to hold leaders accountable for their actions.
smsm42 10y ago
You mean softballs like: - Golf, what does it do for you? - How does your golf game hold up next to Tiger’s? - What has enchanted you the most from serving in this office? - In this fatherless world, where did you learn to love? - Are you ready to call yourself the ‘comeback kid’? - You definitely have some impressive accomplishments….And more than a lot of presidents who manage to get reelected. My question is, is it enough? - Have you given up on the Republicans? - I’m wondering if you think that [Republican presidential candidates are] uninformed, out of touch, or irresponsible? All actual questions press asked Obama: http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/15/13-hard-hitting-questions-mainstream-reporters-asked-obama/ http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/15/13-hard-hitting-questions-...
- redial 10y ago
  Reporters can ask whatever they want, including stupid/uninteresting questions, that's the point. But limiting who can attend is only a move to signal they don't want hard questions and if you ask them you get banned.
  - smsm42 10y ago
    Nobody wants hard questions, as such, but I agree it would be good for the President to allow diversity of viewpoints be represented in the press pool. I'm just saying journalists being soft and submissive towards the government with which they are politically aligned is not exactly the new thing that Trump threatens to unleash on us - it has happened many times before.
    - redial 10y ago
      Allowing only those who are soft to ask questions is new.
      - smsm42 10y ago
        Are you sure? Here is the report about closed sessions with reporters that Obama held: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/us/politics/calculated-candor-inside-obamas-off-the-record-briefings.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/04/us/politics/calculated-ca... It's not that some of the press was excluded, it's not that only "trusted" media was invited, it's that they agreed to not even report on what they talked about or who they met with. I think private meetings with no mention of them and reporting based on this as if they arrived to it by themselves and not were instructed by the administration is much cozier relationship than just being invited or not invited in one briefing.

manigandham 10y ago

> but they can't directly control or audit the questions asked That's exactly what's happening - they're skipping the reporters and now excluding the news organization entirely.