Having a spot in the white house press pool is legally a privilege, not a right. The AP can still operate and write whatever they like, they’re just not invited to exclusive press briefings.
This is a long-standing conflict of interest that incentivizes the press to field softball questions and avoid writing critical stories in hopes of getting priority treatment from the government, but typically it works in a more subtle way.
I mean, I guess you could look at it that way, to an extent. But the larger effect is that it reinforces the threat against every other major news outlet, in a very blunt and overt way.
I don’t expect the AP to suddenly radicalize over it or anything.
Having a spot in the white house press pool is legally a privilege, not a right. The AP can still operate and write whatever they like, they’re just not invited to exclusive press briefings.
This is a long-standing conflict of interest that incentivizes the press to field softball questions and avoid writing critical stories in hopes of getting priority treatment from the government, but typically it works in a more subtle way.
So this unshackles the AP from bias in their reporting?
I mean, I guess you could look at it that way, to an extent. But the larger effect is that it reinforces the threat against every other major news outlet, in a very blunt and overt way.
I don’t expect the AP to suddenly radicalize over it or anything.