This may sound like a small logistic matter. It’s not. The White House press room contains work stations and broadcast booths, and the briefing area for presidential news conferences. Reporters have had workspace at the White House since Teddy Roosevelt was president, in 1902.
But we’re in a new era, the reign of King Trump.
Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, acknowledges “there has been some discussion about how” to move the press out of the White House. Spicer says it’s because the new administration would like a larger room to allow more members of the press to attend press conferences.
Rubbish. It’s because a larger room would allow the administration to fill seats with “alt-right” fringe journalists, right-wing social media, Trump supporters and paid staffers. They’d be there to ask the questions Trump wants to answer, and to jeer at reporters who ask critical questions, and to applaud Trump’s answers.
The move would allow Trump to play the crowd.
That’s exactly what happened at Trump’s so-called “news conference” on Jan. 11 — the first he’s held in six months.
It wasn’t really a press conference at all, and shouldn’t have been characterized as one. It was a fake news conference that took place in a large auditorium.
In the audience were paid staffers who jeered and snickered when reporters asked critical questions, and cheered every time Trump delivered one of his campaign zingers. It could easily have been one of his rallies.
In this carnival atmosphere it was easy for Trump to refuse to answer questions from reporters who have run stories he doesn’t like, and from news outlets that have criticized him.
He slammed CNN for dispensing “fake news,” called BuzzFeed “a pile of garbage,” and sarcastically called the BBC “another beauty.” The audience loved it.
Just as he did in his rallies, Trump continued calling the press “dishonest” — part of his ongoing effort to discredit the press and to reduce public confidence in it.
And he repeatedly lied. But the media in attendance weren’t allowed to follow up or to question him on his lies.
That would have happened at a real news conference in the White House press room, holding 45 correspondents from major media outlets who are assigned full-time to report on the president.
Which is the danger of evicting the press from the White House and putting press conferences into a large auditorium: Trump won’t be called on his lies, and the White House press corps will lose the leverage they have by being together in one rather small room.
And that’s precisely why Trump wants to evict the press from the White House.
A senior official admitted the move was a reaction to hostile press coverage. The view at the highest reaches of the incoming administration is that the press is the enemy. “They are the opposition party,” said the senior official. “I want ‘em out of the building. We are taking back the press room.”
The incoming Trump administration is intent on neutering the White House press corps. If it happens, it will be another step toward neutering our democracy.
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