White House Correspondents Association says Trump administration is trying to pressure reporters

The White House Correspondents’ Association says the Trump administration should abandon its “wrong-headed effort” to take control of the press briefing room seating chart.

The White House Correspondents’ Association says the Trump administration should abandon its “wrong-headed effort” to take control of the press briefing room seating chart. In a memo to its nearly 900 members on Monday, the association charged the White House with trying to “exert pressure on journalists over coverage they disagree with.” Axios and CNN reported Sunday that the White House intends to take charge of the seating assignments, bigfooting the association, which has managed the matter for decades. “The most obvious end result of this reported plan is the punishment, not elevation, of journalists,” the association’s president Eugene Daniels wrote Monday. “It’s the same at the Pentagon, where the administration removed longstanding outlets whose coverage they disagreed with for other outlets that did not regularly cover the building.” Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, Trump and his press aides have shown a clear desire to do away with White House press corps norms and traditions. The actions have all trended in the same direction: Toward promoting pro-Trump friends and punishing perceived foes. In February the White House banned The Associated Press from many presidential events, prompting The AP take legal action. The White House also began to organize the daily “press pool” of reporters who travel with Trump, bypassing the association.