Is it time to disband the White House press corps?
The reporters assigned to follow President Obama are frustrated, and they're not the only ones
It was probably, in retrospect, bad timing for Politico to publish a long article complaining about the Obama administration's ill treatment of the White House press corps on the same day the White House press corps, with lots of help from Politico, was complaining bitterly about not getting a photo-op of Obama and Tiger Woods golfing together in Florida last weekend. The big golf grievance successfully "kicked off a kind of debate about the Obama administration's atrocious record of letting the press corps talk to the president," raging "from the pages of Politico to... well, to the pages of Politico," says David Weigel at Slate. But as, um, Politico's Dylan Byers explains:
This is where the griping registered by Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei comes in. After calling Obama a "puppet master" for being really good at bypassing the press corps through Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and White House–issued photographs, Allen and VandeHei say this tilting of power from the press corps to the White House is "an arguably dangerous development." They only hint at why — unlike the network anchors and local TV stations Obama sits down with regularly, the White House correspondents for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Politico are "are often most likely to ask tough, unpredictable questions" — but their article is actually a pretty good argument for why the White House press corps is increasingly irrelevant.
Most of the reaction, from the Left and Right, seems to line up with the views the Politico journalists ascribe to White House staffers: The Washington press corps is "whiny, needy, and too enamored with trivial matters or their own self-importance." Gawker's John Cook, for example, brutally tweeted every question that Allen, himself a former White House correspondent, posed to George W. Bush in 2008, when he had access to a president; it makes for pretty light reading (examples: "Mr. President, who does the better impression, Will Ferrell of you, or Dana Carvey of your father?"; "Mr. President, I know you're going to hate this, but I'm hoping that we may twist your arm and talk about baseball for just a moment.")
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"I wish I knew what to think about this," says Kevin Drum at Mother Jones. On the one hand, I'd like Obama and future presidents to make themselves more available for tough questioning from the press.
It's true that "the increasingly vestigial-looking White House press corps isn't really suited for" asking tough policy questions, says Slate's Weigel. But Ana Marie Cox came up with a solution for that years ago: Get rid of the White House press corps and replace it with "an ever-changing amoeba of beat reporters" — if the president is going to talk about North Korea, send national security and Asia reporters to grill him; if he's talking about universal pre-K, send in the education reporters. White House correspondent isn't the prestigious job it used to be, and it's expensive to send reporters all around the country and abroad.
Journalists have been complaining about the "gilded cage" of the White House correspondent post since at least the Reagan administration, says Carter Eskew at The Washington Post. And the set-up, increasingly, is not good for anyone. After being fed "daily dry morsels of prepackaged news," is it any wonder reporters became "feral" when "real news, like Iran-Contra or Monica Lewinsky," hit their desk? "They were starving for something real, and perhaps for payback." Maybe now is the time to radically rethink putting seasoned journalists into this situation.
That might be a little drastic, says Mother Jones' Drum. Look, "Obama is right: The D.C. press corps is hardly worth engaging with on subjects of any substance. But the D.C. press corps is also right: He should make himself available anyway." That at least puts the two sides on the same playing field, level or not. Then, "if reporters don't lay a glove on him, that's their problem, not his."
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
-
Arizona court reinstates 1864 abortion ban
Speed Read The law makes all abortions illegal in the state except to save the mother's life
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published