Esquire EXCLUSIVE: The Trump administration may evict the press from the Wh

[kpete]

According to three senior officials on the transition team, a plan to evict the press corps from the White House is under serious consideration by the incoming Trump Administration. If the plan goes through, one of the officials said, the media will be removed from the cozy confines of the White House press room, where it has worked for several decades. Members of the press will be relocated to the White House Conference Center—near Lafayette Square—or to a space in the Old Executive Office Building, next door to the White House.

"There has been no decision," Sean Spicer, Trump's press secretary, said about the plan today. But Spicer acknowledged that "there has been some discussion about how to do it."

Spicer cast the possible relocation of the press corps as a matter, in part, of logistics. "There's been so much interest in covering a President Donald Trump," he said. "A question is: Is a room that has forty-nine seats adequate? When we had that press conference the other day, we had thousands of requests, and we capped it at four hundred. Is there an opportunity to potentially allow more members of the media to be part of this? That's something we're discussing."

Another senior official, however, suggested a more pointed motivation for the move. According to the official, the potential relocation reflected a view within the transition team that coverage of Trump has been so hostile as to indicate that the press has abandoned its role as neutral observer.

"They are the opposition party," a senior official says. "I want 'em out of the building. We are taking back the press room."
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a52301/trump-evict-press-white-house/
https://twitter.com/BrendanNyhan/status/820481709691076610

[HoneyBadger]

1. Isn't the White House getting renovated next year?

And Trump is actually going to be working out of the Old Executive Office Building?

[Squinch]

2. Am I missing something or is this not necessarily a bad thing? The White House press corp

has always been a bit cozy. There is not that much news that comes from them other than talking points that have been fed to them by the administration.

If there is a more adversarial relationship with the press that is tasked with covering the White House, we might get some actual news out of them and they might actually chase stories. Which we desperately need them to do right now.

[Thrill]

3. That's what they get for kissing his ass

And not holding him accountable