Symone D. Sanders-Townsend, MSNBC - As a spokeswoman for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, there were times when I wished I could have chosen the reporters who were covering her that day. Certainly, there were a few I hoped wouldn’t show up on a particular day, based on the off-topic questions they were likely to ask.
But I never — ever — would have done that.
That’s because for more than a century, the White House Correspondents’ Association, a private organization made up of some of the finest journalists in the country, has been in charge of the press pool, deciding which journalists are allowed into the limited-capacity rooms on a rotating basis and distributing their write-ups so that every media outlet gets the same access.
Now, the Donald Trump administration has thrown out that system in a brazen attack on the principles of American democracy and the free press, in favor of one in which they handpick their favorites and — more importantly — block those who are asking uncomfortable questions or refusing to toe the party line....
On March 15, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson’s private secretary promised the commander-in-chief would speak with reporters individually, face to face, at 12:45 p.m. that day. When the time came, more than 100 reporters showed up, forcing Wilson to address them as a group. Even though it was unintentional, this was the first White House press briefing.
The following year, when Wilson threatened to end these press conferences because “certain evening newspapers” quoted remarks he considered off the record, the journalists banded together to start the White House Correspondents’ Association. Their first order of business was to ensure the press conferences had accredited reporters.
The reporters who cover the White House have an arrangement where they combine their resources in service of the collection of news. This arrangement is what is called the “pool.” If an event, meeting or trip is being covered by the pool, it means a certain group of journalists will physically be present and those journalists will share the details of the event with everyone else. (This is just logistics! You cannot fit 100 reporters into the Oval Office.) The journalists themselves have decided who should be allowed in through a system that ensures fairness and access for all journalists across the board, regardless of who the president is.
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