The Trump administration is reportedly planning a new seating chart in the White House's press briefing room that might result in legacy media outlets losing long-held spots.
On Sunday, Axios reported that the White House will take over the seating chart for the briefing room, a task currently managed by the White House Correspondents' Association. President Donald Trump's administration has been critical of the WHCA's involvement in selecting which outlets can access the president and his Cabinet.
'We want to balance disruption with responsibility.'
Shortly after taking office, the administration announced that it would open the briefing room to "new media voices," encouraging independent journalists, podcasters, and social media influencers to apply for a dedicated spot at the front of the room.
The unprecedented move to bypass the WHCA resulted in a flood of thousands of interested applicants.
The Trump administration also previously limited the pool of reporters who may join the president for smaller press events, including those held in the Oval Office and on Air Force One.
The administration's latest move to reorganize the seating chart of the briefing room further challenges the WHCA's long-term role.
A senior White House official told Axios that plans have been formalized for a "fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today."
"The goal isn't merely favorable coverage," the official stated. "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."
The new layout will include reporters from television, print, and digital outlets. While corporate media outlets will continue to have access to the briefing room, the shake-up might see them booted from their seats in the front rows.
"We want to balance disruption with responsibility," the official told Axios.
The official also noted that a WHCA member privately mentioned the possibility of changing bylaws to allow the sitting White House press secretary to serve as the group's president.
The official called the idea "interesting" but stated that the administration is "skeptical the association's board could pull it off."
Neither the White House nor the WHCA responded to a request for comment from the New York Post.
A senior White House official confirmed the plans to implement a new seating chart to CNN.
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The White House Correspondents' Association has long determined which journalists get to participate in the presidential press pool, effectively guaranteeing the legacy media's unrivaled access to the nation's chief executive along with its ability to determine what information is ultimately disseminated to the public.
Citing a desire to restore power to the people, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday that the White House press team, not the WHCA, will now determine who populates the pool.
The White House wasted no time switching things up. On Wednesday, it displaced the establishment media in the pool and brought in Blaze Media senior politics editor and Washington correspondent Christopher Bedford along with a TV correspondent from Newsmax.
'The Trump administration understands how vital fair and balanced media access is.'
Bedford, representing new media, also attended President Donald Trump's first Cabinet meeting, where he pressed Elon Musk about the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency's next moves.
"This is the first time in history a new media reporter has been selected to be part of the pool," Bedford told BlazeTV's "Blaze News Tonight: The Mandate." "There was, of course, some grumbling about that."
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"Today's coverage signifies how Blaze Media is expanding to provide our audience with the best news about the Trump administration's effort to implement the mandate of the people," stated Blaze Media editor in chief Matthew Peterson. "Chris Bedford is one of the best journalists in the nation and obviously needed to be part of the White House press pool."
Peterson noted further that "for years, legacy media has derived its power from monopolizing control over access to the White House and powerful government officials. The Trump administration understands how vital fair and balanced media access is to preserve and strengthen our form of government. But this story is ultimately not about us or the Trump administration, but serving our audience: concerned and responsible American citizens."
The shake-up took place a day after U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden declined to restore the Associated Press' spot in the press pool and suggested that the WHCA's control was "odd."
'New voices are going to be welcomed.'
"It feels a little odd that the White House is bound by certain decisions that this private organization is making," McFadden reportedly said during a hearing Monday. "Seems to me the White House could decide to throw out the White House Correspondents' Association altogether."
The White House evidently agreed.
"A group of D.C.-based journalists, the White House Correspondents' Association, has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the United States in these most intimate spaces. Not any more," said Leavitt.
"Legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join — fear not — but we will also be offering the privilege to well-deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility," Leavitt said Tuesday.
"New voices are going to be welcomed in as well."
While the five major television networks will continue to take part in the pool on a rotational basis, they will be joined by streaming services, including podcasters, as well as by new media and print outlets shut out by previous administrations.
The White House press team did not immediately respond to a question about the significance of the changes.
After announcing Bedford's admission to the White House press pool on "The Glenn Beck Program," Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, director of programming at Blaze Media, quipped, "I can hear the screams from the legacy media from here."
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Elements of the legacy media were prickled by the WHCA's replacement and the changes to the press pool that followed.
WHCA president and Politico reporter Eugene Daniels said in a statement Tuesday, "This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States."
The following day, Daniels announced that the WHCA's board of directors would no longer distribute pool reports or assist with "any attempt by this administration or any other in taking over independent press coverage of the White House."
'That monopoly no longer exists.'
A spokesman for the New York Times called the White House's decision an "effort to undermine the public's access to independent, trustworthy information about the most powerful person in America."
The Times' chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker, reflexively launched into Russia comparisons, writing, "This reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access."
It is worth noting that on Wednesday, the left-leaning publications ABC, Axios, Bloomberg, NPR, and the New York Times had people in the pool.
Jacqui Heinrich, a news anchor and senior White House correspondent for Fox News, did not invoke Russia but was similarly bent out of shape, tweeting, "This move does not give the power back to the people — it gives power to the White House."
Jordan Schachtel, publisher of the Dossier, suggested that Heinrich's complaint amounts to whinging from the "token right of center outlet allowed in the WHCA cartel."
"Upstarts and competitors were frozen out and it greatly benefited those already inside the group," continued Schachtel. "Now that monopoly no longer exists."
The top editors at the Associated Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg issued a joint statement Wednesday suggesting that the White House's decision to admit one wire service to the press pool on Wednesday, as opposed to the usual three, amounted to a threat to America's access from the free press.
"We believe that any steps by the government to limit the number of wire services with access to the president threatens that principle. It also harms the spread of reliable information to people, communities, businesses, and global financial markets that heavily depend on our reporting," said the editors.
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