{"id":322342,"date":"2021-08-12T02:35:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-11T23:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/wh-journos-roiled-by-spacing-constraints-to-biden-pressers\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T02:35:34","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T23:35:34","slug":"wh-journos-roiled-by-spacing-constraints-to-biden-pressers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wh-journos-roiled-by-spacing-constraints-to-biden-pressers\/","title":{"rendered":"#WH journos roiled by ‘spacing constraints’ to Biden pressers"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#WH journos roiled by ‘spacing constraints’ to Biden pressers<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 President Biden\u2019s recent interactions with reporters in the spacious White House East Room have resembled press conferences, but with a twist: his staff selects which reporters attend, citing \u201cspacing constraints\u201d for why they exclude most White House correspondents.<\/p>\n

The nearly 3,000-square foot<\/a> event space is the largest room in the White House and can fit hundreds of people. But reporters interested in attending one of the semi-regular Biden forums must RSVP electronically and then White House staff pick a small number who are allowed to attend alongside the rotating daily press pool.<\/p>\n

There have been eight such events in the East Room over the past month and they have emerged as one of the top forums to question the president, who, unlike his predecessor, rarely takes many questions on the White House lawn. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all baloney. There is no space issue,\u201d said veteran reporter Brian Karem, who has covered the White House since the Reagan administration. Karem says he has RSVPed and been denied every time. \u201cThis is unprecedented territory. It has never been as restrictive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The East Room is much larger than the 49-seat White House briefing room, where COVID-19 spacing restrictions for daily briefings ended in June. Under former President Donald Trump, East Room events were usually \u201copen press,\u201d meaning any reporter on the White House grounds could attend.<\/p>\n

\"President
President Joe Biden has only hosted one White House press conference in his term.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis president has never made himself available to the open press in an open atmosphere, and the East Room is where those usually occur. This administration is being disingenuous in telling us that there\u2019s limited availability and therefore we can\u2019t get in,\u201d Karem said.<\/p>\n

Karem, a longtime Playboy correspondent who sued the Trump White House for yanking his press badge, said \u201cit equals or surpasses some of the stuff that Donald Trump did. Donald Trump was the guy who would hit you in the face with a sledgehammer. This group seems to be the kind that will embrace you and slip in the shiv silently while they smile.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Brian
Veteran reporter Brian Karem blasted President Joe Biden for never making \u201chimself available to the open press in an open atmosphere.\u201d
\n<\/figcaption>
LinkedIn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Biden\u2019s aides \u201chave told multiple stories about how they pick the people that they allow in the room,\u201d including at one point claiming it was \u201cfirst come, first serve,\u201d before a seat was given to a reporter who RSVP-ed after him, Karem said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is no different than Donald Trump trying to keep people from getting their press pass. They\u2019re just a little more subtle about it. This administration has created another level of access without any type of transparency as to how this is being done,\u201d Karem said. \u201cIt\u2019s inconsistent with the ideals of a free press. They cannot pick and choose who they want to cover them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden has had just one solo White House press conference since taking office on Jan. 20, with severely limited access. He held additional press conferences while travel<\/a>ing in Europe in June and while hosting visiting world leaders.<\/p>\n

White House Correspondents\u2019 Association President Steven Portnoy, a CBS News<\/a> Radio reporter, told Biden at a July 15 joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he hoped the East Room would return to its more open status.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to the day we can have even more reporters all the way to the back of the room,\u201d Portnoy told Biden, before asking his questions.<\/p>\n

\"President
The White House East Room offers almost 3,000-square feet for large audiences.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"President
White House staff have regularly chosen a small group of reporters to attend forums at the East Room.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biden responded, \u201cObviously I know why they elected you president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Portnoy directed The Post to his prior remarks to Biden when asked for comment.<\/p>\n

New York Times reporter Peter Baker, a longtime White House correspondent and author, told The Post that \u201cin the old days (Clinton and Bush 43 for sure, and I think Obama too), any reporter who was in the briefing room when they did the escort could go up\u201d to East Room events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe East Room hasn\u2019t shrunk in recent years so it\u2019s hard to imagine why space constraints would suddenly require restricting the number of journalists who cover events there,\u201d Baker said.<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former President Donald Trump allowed \u201copen press\u201d events during press events in the White House East Room.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAnd it raises the question of what they base these decisions on \u2014 is it first-come, first-serve, or are they picking and choosing among reporters or news organizations based on some other criteria? If it\u2019s the latter, that would be potentially troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baker noted that the Trump White House started to do credentialing for events, often requiring an RSVP by a certain time, though there did not seem to be similar weeding out of reporters who met the deadline.<\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday offered a counter-intuitive defense of the pre-screening, seeming to say in response to a question from The Post that the White House was being fairer to journalists covering events remotely by limiting in-person attendance.<\/p>\n

\"White
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insists the Biden administration is \u201cnot discriminating against\u201d reporters.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI think we wanted to make it as transparent as possible and make the entire meeting available to everyone who isn\u2019t just in this room. So we are actually not discriminating against people who are covering the White House from outside of the White House briefing room,\u201d Psaki said at her daily briefing.<\/p>\n

But Karem blames Biden\u2019s staff for being overprotective of their sometimes gaffe-prone boss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been told by senior administration officials that they\u2019re protecting the message. Great \u2014 I have more faith in Joe Biden than I have in this communication people,\u201d Karem said. <\/p>\n

\"President
New York Times reporter Peter Baker questions why the Biden administration is \u201cpicking and choosing among reporters\u201d to attend press events.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in scrums with him and in the Senate. I questioned him numerous times over the years\u2026 And he\u2019s handled himself fine. Every politician I know makes a misstep\u2026 there are people that are overprotective of the president for no good reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has some reporters wary about a return to Trump-era free-for-alls.<\/p>\n

George Condon, a National Journal reporter who has covered the White House since 1982, said \u201cother administrations have at times let so many reporters in that some have fainted because they were packed in so tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"National
National Journal reporter George Codon suggests the Biden administration should host press conferences at the White House \u201cRose Garden and South Lawn,\u201d to maintain COVID measures.
\n<\/figcaption>
C-SPAN<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Condon says all administrations have limited access to at least some East Room events.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery administration has had East Room events limited to just the press pool and others where you had to sign up in advance. What is different today is the pandemic. There just is no historical precedent for this at the White House,\u201d Condon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we would howl if this administration tried to hold any event where we were jammed in as tightly as some events in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Condon added, \u201cI am more interested in arguing for open attendance at events in the Rose Garden and South Lawn. Those feel safer than packing the East Room or State Dining Room. I just don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to win that argument while COVID is around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former White House press secretaries, whose jobs included controlling access to the president, also offered nuanced takes.<\/p>\n

Mike McCurry, President Bill Clinton\u2019s longest-serving press secretary, said he doesn\u2019t know enough about the current circumstances to comment on them, but that \u201cthe composition of the media<\/a> in the 1990s was much different than now and the line between bona fide journalists and protagonists for various causes was much less blurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ari Fleischer, the first press secretary to President George W. Bush, said that Biden\u2019s recent use of the East Room for curated mini-press conferences is much different than his days leading the press shop, when events in the room usually featured invited guests such as victorious sports teams, seated before the president, making them unsuitable forums for questions.<\/p>\n

\"Former
Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer claims the Bush administration never placed capacity rules for reporters inside the White House East Room.
\n<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cMost events in the East Room had a crowd and were open press so I have zero clue why they would be making it pool only or saying there were space limitations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fleischer said he can\u2019t recall \u201cever doing press Q&A in the East Room either unless it was a full blown press conference, which then everyone was allowed to attend, we made the seating chart, and the president took a dozen questions.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#WH journos roiled by ‘spacing constraints’ to Biden pressers” WASHINGTON \u2014 President Biden\u2019s recent interactions with reporters in the spacious White House East Room have resembled press conferences, but with a twist: his staff selects which reporters attend, citing \u201cspacing constraints\u201d for why they exclude most White House correspondents. The nearly 3,000-square foot event space…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":322343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/white-house-reporters-roiled-434.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[113932,1545,4941,93263,991,5057,98874,42873],"class_list":["post-322342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-8-11-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-donald-trump","tag-jen-psaki","tag-joe-biden","tag-journalists","tag-press-conference","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}