'Total mess': White House reporters express 'annoyance, frustration' over Trump Briefing Room shakeup

04 December 2024

President-elect Donald Trump has made no secret of his contempt for the mainstream media, which he has repeatedly described as "the enemy of the people" and providers of "fake news."

Moreover, far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Kash Patel — Trump's pick to replace Christopher Wray as FBI director — has even said that journalists who rejected claims that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump should face criminal prosecution.

Trump, after losing to now-President Joe four years ago, falsely claimed that he was the real winner — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. And Patel, during a 2023 interview with "War Room" host Steven Bannon, threatened, "Yes, we're going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections. We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out. But yeah, we're putting you all on notice.”

According to The Hill's Dominick Mastrangelo, Trump and his allies are planning to "dramatically change" the White House's James Brady Briefing Room by favoring "podcasters, internet personalities and media deemed more friendly to him" over traditional mainstream outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. The overtly pro-Trump media, Mastrangelo reports, would be placed near the front — while the Times and the Post wouldn't.

In an article published on December 4, Mastrangelo explains, "Reporters covering The White House, in conversations with The Hill this week, described a feeling of annoyance, frustration and dread at such an idea."

Mastrangelo notes that traditionally, NBC, CBS, ABC, The Associated Press, CNN, and Reuters have "occupied the first row of the James Brady Briefing Room" while "other larger outlets like The Wall Street Journal, CBS News Radio, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Bloomberg have seats in the second row."

Reporters for The Hill, according to Mastrangelo, have been placed in the fourth row during Biden's presidency.

A White House reporter, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told The Hill, "It would be a total mess. I would expect people would probably boycott the briefings, though that would put certain outlets in a tough spot deciding if they want to go along with what the Trump people are trying to pull."

Veteran White House reporter Julie Mason told The Hill, "If they think they're going to end White House reporting by throwing everyone out or clearing out the first three rows, good luck, because that's not how that works. They would really beclown themselves if they put three rows of Gateway Pundit clones in the briefing room."

Mason continued, "This administration wants to be taken seriously.… By doing this you make a joke of the briefing. It just makes the whole thing look ridiculous."

Read Dominick Mastrangelo's full report for The Hill at this link.

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