The White House takes over the press pool from the correspondents’ association

What happened

The White House press team, not the White House Correspondents’ Association, now decides which reporters sit in the presidential press pool. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced the change, which ends roughly a century of the press corps setting its own rotation.

Leavitt said the five network TV outlets would stay but be rotated, and that streaming and other new outlets would be added. The White House, not the association, will pick which outlets take each seat in the pool that covers the president.

The announcement came two weeks after the White House barred the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One over the Gulf of America dispute, and four days after the AP sued. The pool change came with the AP’s lawsuit still fresh.

Who benefited

The White House now chooses the reporters who travel with the president and sit in front of him. It can rotate the network outlets and add streaming and other new outlets as it sees fit.

Who wanted something

The White House had barred the AP over the Gulf of America dispute two weeks earlier, and it now controls the pool that covers the president. Leavitt framed the change as rotating the networks and adding new outlets.

Who lost out

The White House Correspondents’ Association lost a role it had held for roughly a century, and the Associated Press lost its place in the Oval Office and on Air Force One. WHCA president Eugene Daniels said the move tears at the independence of a free press.

Why it matters

The reporters who cover the president are now picked by the president’s own staff. Daniels said leaders must not choose their own press corps. The AP had sued four days before the announcement. Daniels, the correspondents’ association president, said leaders must not choose their own press corps. The AP sued four days before the announcement.

Sources ReutersAPCBS NewsCNN Business