Karoline Leavitt shocked the White House with her latest move! The youngest press secretary in history appeared on a podcast with Sean Spicer, who served as President Donald Trump’s press secretary for the first six months of 2017. Leavitt declared that she wouldn’t be part of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s (WHCA) dinner scheduled for April 26.
“I will not be in attendance at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, and that’s breaking news for ‘The Sean Spicer Show,'” Leavitt said. Meanwhile, the correspondents’ dinner is a formal event to honor journalists and media house members assigned to cover the president of the United States, White House events, and news briefings.
According to Fox News, Karoline Leavitt feels that the committee has not welcomed new media houses or independent journalists to the space over the years, and it’s time to change that style of functioning.
Therefore, in February, the White House announced that it would choose journalists for the 13-member pool, breaking the WHCA’s tradition of selecting the group. President Donald Trump did not attend the WHCA annual dinner during his first term.
In the podcast, Leavitt also said that since the Trump administration brought about this change, many new voices and outlets that had never been part of this group have had the chance to cover the presidency. She also said her team recorded over 15,000 applications for the new media seat in the press briefing room.
In a time when America’s political scene remains volatile, this new step seems like a big move and a nod to breaking media traditions that existed in the White House. However, passing this new rule would mean that pioneer popular outlets like the Associated Press, Bloomberg, and Reuters would no longer have a permanent spot like before and instead be on a rotational quota or would rotate a single seat instead.
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Consequently, passing this new rule wasn’t easy. Eugene Daniels, the president of WHCA’s board and a Politico correspondent, said the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States.” However, the White House representatives argued that this step was essential to breaking the shackles of an age-old legacy and giving the newer digital outlets a chance to be on the frontlines.
In other news, the White House has punished media houses for not following rules. For instance, the White House recently banned the famous media outlet Associated Press (AP) because the AP denied referring to the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ as the ‘Gulf of America.’ Knowing Donald Trump’s radical rule, we aren’t surprised. Yet, history has also seemed to repeat itself in American politics, as in 2009, Barack Obama banned Fox News from attending White House press events.
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Later, the Washington bureau chiefs of other outlets took a stand and refused to participate unless Fox News was included. Eventually, the Obama administration agreed and allowed Fox News to join the White House again. Has the media scenario drastically shifted since Trump’s administration took office? Tell us your thoughts.
