The White House Correspondents’ Association expressed its concerns after President Trump, on his trip to the Middle East, decided to ban access to Air Force One for some news agencies, including Associated Press, Bloomberg and Reuters. However, it appears that some journalists were still allowed on the flight, but not from these major wire services.
“Their reports are distributed quickly to thousands of news outlets and millions of readers throughout the world every day, so all have equal access to coverage of the presidency,” the Association said in a statement. “This change is a disservice to every American who deserves to know what their highest elected leader is up to, as quickly as possible.”
This most recent development is hardly the first to pit the Trump administration against the press pool.
Shortly after his return to Washington, D.C., the president banned Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One because the agency had refused to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America”, as required by an executive order he had signed.
At the time, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt argued that being able to follow the president is a “privilege” and that the press office had the right to disallow media access that did not comply with the government’s new designation of the Gulf.
The agency later sued the federal administration, arguing that the White House-sponsored provision clearly violated the First Amendment.
The AP and press freedom groups claim the Trump administration is seeking to suppress media coverage it does not deem sufficiently favorable, while warning other news outlets about the “risks” they could face.
As a result of the legal dispute with the agency, the administration has decided to directly control the rotation of reporters assigned to the Oval Office and Air Force One, a task that until a few months ago was carried out by the White House Correspondents’ Association.
After journalists were again barred from boarding the presidential plane during the U.S. leader’s trip to the Middle East, the various news outlets immediately sought clarification from the White House.
However, neither Leavitt nor any official in Washington, D.C., issued a comment on the matter.
