Brian Stelter, CNN Chief Media Correspondent:
Geoff, if you and I went out and launched a new news organization today we would be able to apply to be at the White House. We would be able to apply eventually to be in the press pool. So there already is a sense of inclusiveness.
It is possible for new brands, new outlets, new start-ups to join the press corps and even join the press pool. The reality is that the daily grind of covering the White House is expensive and demanding, and it’s been done by a handful of big news outlets like the Associated Press for decades and decades.
So the White House here is trying to break that and trying to say it decides who can cover the president, it decides who can ask questions of the president. As you mentioned, the White House Correspondents’ Association response, saying this tears at the independence of a free press in the United States, that is true.
And, ultimately, when press access suffers, when press freedom suffers, the public suffers, maybe not right away, but down the line, we start to know less about the president, we start to know less about the administration, and ultimately everyone suffers.
