Is it time to disband the White House press corps?

To the surprise of no one, the White House recently moved to purge reporters by taking away or restricting their daily press passes to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Under the new rules unveiled by press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, journalists will be required to work at the White House for 90 out of 180 days in order to hold "hard passes," which allow easy access to the building for reporters who regularly cover the administration. But that 180 days includes weekends, so if reporters aren't at the White House on most workdays, their pass gets rescinded. In other words, Sanders and the White House get to become the Deciders on who gets access to the White House. It's "the hallmark of authoritarianism," complained Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon. And he's right.

But the response from news outlets and press associations, has mostly been crickets, as they continue to display hallmark timidity in dealing with this bullying administration. Sadly, the dramatic purge is just the latest radical move by a White House that has severely restricted press access to official events. It all constitutes a historic, incremental effort by the Trump administration to lock out the news media—and, by extension, the public—from the government’s official duties and business.

The move comes as the White House approaches nearly 50 straight days without hosting a press briefing. (Until Donald Trump, press briefings were held daily.) Sanders' no-show routine at the press briefings has become so absurd that White House reporters now often dash out onto the grounds when she's giving a live interview to Fox News on the White House lawn. When she's done with her friendly Fox News Q&A, reporters pepper her with queries on her way back into the White House. It's a complete charade and makes a mockery out of the idea of democratic transparency.

So if the daily briefings are essentially dead, access to officials has been dramatically restricted, and now press credentials are being revoked, the question becomes: Is it time for news organizations to pull back their White House teams of journalists and use those resources more wisely from different locations? Is it time to acknowledge the folly of trying to produce actual journalism inside a White House filled with chronically dishonest people who view the press as the "enemy of the people," and who do everything possible to restrict access? Basically, is it time to disband the White House press corps?

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2w4Y3sA