Former CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy was apoplectic Monday night in his newsletter site Status over a leaked White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) meeting showing dissent within the ranks over the White House press office taking control of setting the press pool rotations from WHCA and a refusal to collectively boycott President Trump’s appearances and remarks.
Darcy inserted his feelings from the get-go: “Press Pool Pandemonium; Frustration with the WHCA erupted during an off-the-record meeting Monday, as some members pushed the organization to respond more forcefully to Donald Trump’s assault on the press corps.”
He explained the meetings was held by WHCA President and incoming MSNBC host Eugene Daniels and included what Darcy called “an acknowledgment of the uncomfortable truth: the White House has seized control of the press pool, sidelining the association and leaving it in a precarious position.”
“[M]any members want the organization—which is to a large degree hamstrung by a collective action problem—to respond more aggressively. That frustration boiled over,” he added.
Darcy leaked that “Daniels fielded a barrage of tough questions as members pressed the board on its handling of the crisis and demanded to know what concrete steps it planned to take in response to Trump’s power play” with some accusing the WHCA of not carrying out what only Darcy could dream of as some sort of Les Misérables cry for a revolution...or dare we say an insurrection?
Citing disgust from April Ryan (who’s now apparently with some site called Black Press USA) and The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg, Darcy treated far-left Atlantic reporter and former Washington Post correspondent Ashley Parker as some hero for suggesting the press refuse to show up at and/or cover White House events:
[Parker] asked where the television networks—the most influential players in the pool—stood on the issue. It goes without saying that Trump craves media attention, particularly live coverage, meaning that if major networks backed the AP and HuffPost, it could make a difference. Daniels indicated that the conversations with the networks are ongoing.
Even though the pool has since included longtime anti-Trump outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, NPR, Politico, Time magazine, The Washington Post, and even The Indepent (via Feinberg himself) to name a few, Darcy painted a picture of doom and a dictatorship in place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue:
By dictating which outlets have access to the White House press pool—a system designed to ensure fair and broad representation—Trump is effectively punishing independent journalism while rewarding those willing to toe the line. The fact that the press has, so far, largely complied with this arrangement raises uncomfortable questions about how much influence the White House can exert over coverage simply by leveraging access.
Since Trump took control of the pool, news organizations have, in practice, gone along with the new system...The result is that, whether intentionally or not, the press corps has participated in Trump’s power grab by continuing to show up.
Word of the wise to the legacy media: Never get as high on your own supply as this guy.
Darcy closed by sounding like a union boss, demanding there be “collective action” from the WHCA:
If the entire press corps refused to participate in the pool, they could perhaps have a chance at forcing Trump’s hand. It’s hard to imagine he’d tolerate a world in which his Oval Office remarks weren’t carried live or his movements were covered only by sycophantic outlets like OAN—especially if the mainstream networks refused to air footage recorded by Trump's propaganda arms.
In your dreams.
