Eugene Daniels is a weirdo who managed to become an MSNBC reporter.  That’s fine, none of my business.

Daniels is the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.  The WHCA is an organization that’s been around for over a hundred years, and has accrued power and prestige.

The WHCA holds an annual dinner event that has evolved into a comedy roast of the president of the United States.  Politicians and White House journalists attend, and show how the powerful people in Washington can be chummy and collegial.  Showing the power elite at this prestigious event is creepy enough.

Corporate media skews left.  As our politics have become more divisive, Republican presidents were supposed to show that they can endure being the butt of the jokes, and Democrat presidents could fire off some zingers and claim they were just jokes.

President Trump doesn’t play along or attend.

The WHCA has actual power. 

For events where there isn’t room for the entire press corps to attend, like in the Oval Office or on Air Force One, a group of 13 journalists are chosen to attend as a press pool.  The WHCA decided which journalists were given a coveted spot in the press pool.

The WHCA also establishes the seating chart for journalists in the White House briefing room.  Sitting closer to the front of the room indicates that the journalist has greater power and prestige.

Eugene Daniels is a flamboyant journalist working for an intentionally Leftist news organization.  Again, that’s fine.  Daniels and the WHCA are not aligned with typical Americans.  

The White House has recognized that the news landscape has changed.  Corporate news has become more partisan and independent news sources are more relevant.  When Donald Trump appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience, 70 million people watched the interview on Youtube, Spotify and other platforms.  Corporate media doesn’t pull anywhere close to those numbers.

The White House has decided to choose the journalists in the press pool to rotate in alternative media.  They are also going to establish the seating chart in the White House briefing room.

The White House can exert control over press coverage, but that is more transparent than a group of unaccountable press insiders exerting that control.

The WHCA will loudly denounce their loss of power and privilege.