> I am personally unsure of the value of these press pools in the face of modern 'PR'; as far as I can tell, all they do is generate 'clippable' videos. Very m

> I am personally unsure of the value of these press pools in the face of modern 'PR'; as far as I can tell, all they do is generate 'clippable' videos. Very much the opposite - the press pool generates a massive amount of cross-verified content for distribution to all news agencies. The agencies then clip and edit and nip and tuck the press pool coverage as they see fit. Obviously the press pool only gets all the talking points they want them to, but also the press pool is literally there following around the president all day, so it's also really hard to hide things from the press pool. For example, the press pool knew of Obama's smoking or FDR's wheelchair or RFK's... indulgences. As part of the unwritten gentleman's agreement they never broke news on this stuff, but they were also witness to it and recorded it for later.