Reports indicate that the White House is close to unveiling a new seating arrangement for the briefing room—a change that might see some major outlets lose their traditional front-row spots as more MAGA-friendly allies are being added in the room.
Axios noted that the administration plans to establish and enforce its seating chart, a role that the journalist-led White House Correspondents’ Association has managed for decades.
An unnamed person described by Axios as a senior White House official told the news outlet that the Trump administration is aiming for a “fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today.”
“The goal isn’t merely favorable coverage,” the official told Axios. “It’s truly an honest look at consumption [of the outlets’ coverage]. Influencers are important, but it’s tough because they aren’t [equipped to provide] consistent coverage. So the ability to cover the White House is part of the metrics.”
“Major legacy outlets will still be included. But expect some to have diminished visibility compared with their customary spots in the first few rows. We want to balance disruption with responsibility,” the official said, per Axios.
The change is likely to provoke a strong backlash from reporters already upset by the White House now determining who comprises the press pool—the select group of journalists granted access to the president at events that can’t accommodate many. Critics argue that the Trump administration is trying to mute its detractors while promoting its supporters.
“This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States,” WHCA president Eugene Daniels whined in response to the White House taking over the press pool assignments. “It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps.”
Daniels didn’t go on to list any actual instances of how the Trump White House moves limited the “independence” of the “free press,” however. Also, the White House is not barring any outlet from ‘covering the president.’
A new piece in Politico notes that, “The administration’s embrace of alternative conservative outlets continues a pattern from Trump’s first term, but the divide between the MAGA-friendly media and their more mainstream counterparts has become visible in the briefing room in a way it wasn’t before. Without dedicated seats of their own, a group of about a dozen new media reporters have taken to gathering in the ‘conservative corner’ — as some reporters call it — along the far wall of the briefing room, near the ‘new media seat’ that Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has set aside for a rotating cast of alternative outlets and conservative influencers.”
“The occupants of the conservative corner cut a sharp contrast to their seated colleagues: Many of the reporters in the gaggle are younger than the average White House correspondent, and a handful of them tote around hand-held cameras or other DIY live-streaming equipment. Their fashion choices — flashy ties and steep high heels — stand out in the sea of grey suits and sensible flats. They chatter like old friends (which many of them are from prior reporting gigs) or even romantic partners (which at least two of them are),” the outlet added.
“It’s a little bit of a who’s who of my friends in the conservative ecosystem that have suddenly popped up in the White House,” said Mary Margaret Olohan, the White House correspondent for The Daily Wire.
Natalie Winters, the White House correspondent for Steve Bannon’s “War Room” said, “You know when you’re at a party and you see someone who you don’t technically know, but you know them like through a friend from social media, and it’s that awkward question of, like, ‘Do I say hi or do I not?’ It’s a room full of that, except you know the people because you bash them on TV.”