{UAH} TAKE THE CAMERAS OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING

Take the cameras out of the White House press briefing

by Becket Adams, Commentary Writer | 

 

June 29, 2020 04:11 PM

It is time to take the cameras out of the White House press briefings.

For a great number of journalists, the press conferences are not an opportunity to serve the public interest or gather news. They are merely an opportunity for public showboating, impressing the “in crowd,” and advancing one’s professional career with performative, on-camera acts of “resistance.”

Politico’s chief Washington correspondent Ryan Lizza, for example, asked White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany Monday whether President Trump believes it is a good thing that the Confederacy lost the American Civil War.

"I think a lot of people are trying to understand what his view of memorializing the Confederacy is and the proper place of the Confederate flag," the Politico reporter said.

 

He added, "Does President Trump believe that it was a good thing that the South lost the Civil War?"

Trump is all over the place on basically every issue, including Confederate memorials. But there is no reason to suspect that the president is secretly a fan of the Confederacy and everything it stood for. Moreover, there is a 0% chance that McEnany is going to have an answer to it that advances even that story. Lizza knows that. His question is obviously red meat for the viewers at home. And, hey, if Lizza's editors believe the incident should be included in his forthcoming book, who is he to say no?

"Well, your first question is absolutely absurd. He's proud of the United States of America," said an understandably annoyed McEnany.

The saddest thing about this incident is that it is not an isolated event for the White House press corps. Indeed, this is just another in a long line of exceptionally stupid questions asked since Trump took office.

In fact, Monday’s episode is reminiscent of the time American Urban Radio Networks’s April Ryan asked former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether Trump approves of slavery.

“Does this administration believe, does this president believe, slavery was wrong?” Ryan asked in 2017. “And before you answer, Mary Frances Berry, the historian, said in 1860, there was a compromise. The compromise was to have Southern states keep slavery.”

She added, “But the Confederacy fired on Fort Sumter. That caused the Civil War. And because of the Civil War, what happened? The North won, and there’s no slavery."

Of course, as with Lizza's question, one has to wonder what sort of answer Ryan was expecting the press secretary to give. But like McEnany, Sanders wisely declined to take the bait.

“I think it is disgusting and absurd to suggest that anyone inside of this building would support slavery,” the former press secretary said.

The White House press briefing is being abused by cheap showmen eager to boost their personal brands and advance their careers. It is no mistake that the loudest and most obnoxious White House reporters tend to land lucrative book deals. It is also no mistake that the obnoxious behavior tends to intensify at around the time that said book deals are secured.

It is long past time for the White House to stop doing televised press briefings. Hold the briefings, yes, but remove the cameras. Eliminate the incentive for journalists to create self-serving, nationally televised moments. Remove the ability for previously unknown reporters to go "viral" with sick "owns" and "burns" against the administration.

And if the White House cannot bring itself to remove the cameras, it should at least have a discussion with the White House Correspondents Association about whether it is appropriate for reporters with memoir deals to attend the briefings. Because the way things are now, the public is worse for having a White House press corps that is heavily invested in self-promotion.

EM         -> { Trump for 2020 }

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