Credentialed Media Have A Snit Fit Over Proposed Briefing Room Seat Shakeup

The legacy media is apoplectic. Here’s CNN

Trump White House plans to shake up briefing room seating, flexing power over press corps

In the Trump administration’s latest assertion of power over the press corps, the White House intends to take over the seating assignments in the press briefing room, according to a senior official.

The plan may cause a tug-of-war with the White House Correspondents’ Association, the independent group that currently assigns seats and manages the relationship between the White House and the press corps.

“Assertion of power”. ZOMG, Trump is a dictator! You can feel the freakout from CNN. And the Washington Post

Journalists call out reported White House plan to reshuffle media seats

The White House Correspondents’ Association on Monday strongly objected to a reported plan for the White House to take over the process of determining where reporters sit in the briefing room.

The organization has long determined the seating chart, awarding prime positions for the major television networks, news wires and newspapers.

Remember that last paragraph.

The Trump White House’s Latest Blow to the Press Is About Way More Than Seating Charts

…

That may sound like a small thing, and in some ways it is. Deciding who sits where in the briefing room has long been within the purview of the White House Correspondents’ Association, a journalist-led organization. In theory, snagging one of the front-row seats that currently go to some of the biggest broadcasters and newspapers gives reporters a better chance of getting a question in during a press briefing. But in a White House already so openly hostile to the mainstream media—a White House that has used the briefing room to accuse journalists of being propagandists—those seats have diminishing returns.

The issue is not so much how the seating chart will impact this White House’s press briefings, which mostly make news these days for the extent of their obfuscations. But, in assuming power over a system that has traditionally been the domain of the free press, President Donald Trump is sending a message about who’s really in charge of how his presidency gets covered and who gets to cover it.

See, it’s all about Freedom Of The Press being obliterated for the big Credentialed News outlets! This continues through lots and lots of the old school leftist outlets. Nice to see Vanity Fair. Perfect name for the outlet

(Semafor) The WHCA’s current system reflects the 20th century media power structure: wire services and broadcast and cable television networks occupy the front row, major newspapers and radio get the second and third rows, and a more fluid collection of news organizations sits further back. The White House proposal would upend the arrangement in a move White House officials reportedly believe will be a “fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today.”

Oh, that has to make the activist media outlets upset. Not giving the old TV stations and newspapers the first few rows? How dare the Trump administration! Arglebargle! But, yeah, things have changed. How many truly consume the news the way they used to? Maybe the Boomers and older tune into the cBS Evening News and PBS on the radio, but, not so much Gen X and down. Sure, I go to cBS.com, the NY Times, and others, but, I scroll and move from source to source. I use Yahoo News to aggregate, along with other aggregators. We hit blogs and new media. We’re reading left, right, international. We scroll Twitter and other social media (Twitter is my only one).

So, yeah, they’re upset, enough to act like toddlers

On Sunday, key members of the WHCA, including the organization’s leadership and some White House bureau chiefs, met to discuss a range of potential responses should Trump communications officials decide to dictate where reporters in the room sit.

According to two people familiar with the discussions, among the proposals raised by members was a potential Civil Rights era-style “sit-in” protest, in which members would return to their old seats and refuse to leave them.

Good grief. Can they not hear throughout the room? Are they that entitled? Hell of a difference between sitting at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro to fight for equality and a petulant sit in to retain your power, wanting to leave the Other Outlets sitting at the back of the bus.

Asked about a potential protest by members of the WHCA, including a potential sit-in, White House communications director Steven Cheung responded: “Hahahahahahahaha…..…hahahahahahahahaha.”

Yup.

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