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The administration’s changes to the pool come at a moment when the White House is chipping away at the ability of major news organizations to cover it.
President Trump speaking to members of the White House press pool this month. Traveling with the president on short, domestic trips can cost several thousand dollars per person. Credit… Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times The White House announced on Tuesday that it was seizing control of the press pool covering President Trump, becoming the first administration in decades to insist that it will decide which news organizations, and which reporters, are allowed to be close enough to question the president in places like the Oval Office and Air Force One.
On Wednesday night, Eugene Daniels, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, responded by announcing that the group’s board of directors, which represents news organizations that cover the president, would no longer distribute pool reports from the White House’s chosen correspondents.
“This board will not assist any attempt by this administration or any other in taking over independent press coverage of the White House,” wrote Mr. Daniels, who is also a reporter for Politico. “This move from the White House threatens the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president.”
The move by the White House, and the response from the correspondents’ association, raises questions: What is the press pool? Why does it exist? Why is this different from what has happened in the past?
Here is what to know:
What is the press pool? Image
The pool helps solve the practical problem of which correspondents get to be present when the president is in a small space like the Oval Office. Credit… Eric Lee/The New York Times The White House press pool was created during President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s term to solve a practical problem: When the president makes news on the road or at the White House, which of the hundreds of White House correspondents get to be there?
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