Dana Milbank is one of my favorite columnists. He often wields a rherotical scalpel so sharp his victims don’t even realise they have been cut to the quick until a few minutes later when they are standing in a puddle of their own blood. He alternates between writing straight reportage and biting satire. Perhaps the later put him on the White House shit list.
Jonathan Capehart and Laura Rozen tweeted to Milbank that they also had their passes revoked.
He wrote today: The White House revoked my press pass. It’s not just me — it’s curtailing access for all journalists.
He begins:
For the past 21 years, I have had the high privilege of holding a White House press pass, a magical ticket that gives the bearer a front-row seat to history.
I was in the White House the night Bill Clinton admitted his affair with Monica Lewinsky, and the day he was impeached. I was there on Sept. 11, 2001, and the fearful days thereafter, when we were trained to use escape hoods. I watched George W. Bush make the case for the Iraq War and Barack Obama pitch his remedies for the market crash. There, too, I have witnessed the carnival-like briefings and high histrionics of Donald Trump’s presidency.
But no more. The White House eliminated most briefings and severely restricted access to official events. And this week came the coup de grace: After covering four presidents, I received an email informing me that Trump’s press office had revoked my White House credential.
and concludes with:
More important is that the White House is drastically curtailing access for all journalists. Briefings have been abolished in favor of unscheduled “gaggles” ( on the record, but impromptu and haphazard) in the White House driveway. The Pentagon and State Department have done similarly.
The White House has also restricted access by allowing only one journalist from a news organization at most events, and by admitting journalists to events only if they register days in advance. This has sharply reduced journalists’ attendance at the White House — just in time for the 90-day attendance purge.
White House officials offered me and others it disqualified a lesser credential called a six-month pass. They say it will grant equivalent access, but for various technical reasons, that isn’t true.
I’ll keep covering the White House, albeit from a distance, and wait for things to return to normal — if they ever do.
I am looking forward to Milbank’s distant coverage.
I think reporters should back each other and not let their colleagues hang in the wind when Trump evades their questions. They should keep asking follow-ups instead of trying to get their moment in the spotlight with a pre-planned question.
I think the reason for asking qustions is often to get Trump on the record — often because he can be his worst enemy when he gets on the record contradicting previous statements or saying something he will later reverse.