Changes coming to the White House press room
WITH the naming of Sean Spicer as White House press secretary, Donald Trump has selected a Republican Party insider and communications veteran.
But that doesn’t mean it will be business as usual for the press corps that covers the next administration.
Trump’s unconventional, sometimes hostile, relationship with the news media and his penchant for communicating through unfiltered Twitter posts threaten to upend a decades-old Washington tradition that relies almost entirely on protocol.
The result, reporters and editors say, could be a loss of transparency that would hinder the press’s role as a conduit for information to the people.
But Trump’s advisers, and even some formerWhite House press secretaries, say that some of the conventions of White House coverage are outdated and due for a face-lift.
In a radio interview this month, Reince Priebus, the incoming White House chief of staff, suggested that traditions including the daily televised press briefings and seating assignments could change.
“I think it’s time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House, and I can assure you that change is going to happen, even on things that might seem boring like this topic,” he told the ra- dio host Hugh Hewitt.
In an interview with Fox News, Spicer said the new regime wanted to be “innovative, entrepreneurial” about its media operations.
All this has stirred concern among journalists who say seemingly small changes to the system could lead to the diminishing of other traditions.
Since his election, Trump has shown few reservations about ignoring the norms of presidential media coverage. He has defied convention by refusing to allow journalists to travel with him on his plane, including on his flight to the White House.
In a highly publicised incident in mid-November, he left Trump Tower for dinner with his family without telling the reporters assigned to cover his whereabouts, sending the reporters scrambling for information.
The protocols that underpin the relationship between the news media and the president might seem arcane to many Americans. But press advocates say these traditions, even in the age of Twitter, ensure fundamental tenets of democracy: historical record and access to information.
“The American people deserve to have someone stand up and be accountable for the work of the president and the White House every day,” said Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary for President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s. “I think any White House needs to explain its position and reasoning in more than 140 characters.”