Dear Traditional Media:
This may come as a shock to you, but you do not need a White House Press Pass. In fact, having “access” consistently undermined your reporting during the Bush Administration. Please don’t make the same mistake during the Trump Administration.
Try to remember back in the early 2000’s when you would find clear, unambiguous evidence of wrong-doing by the Bush Administration, (e.g. energy policy written by the oil industry, cooked intelligence promoted as truth, that weird Gannon/Guckert fake-media thing that broke the White House’s own access rules, to name but a few), and then use your White House Press Pass to ask about about it. Remember how they who would deny, deny, deny, but offer no counter-evidence to refute what you already knew? Do you remember how you reported that? I’ll remind you; “Despite clear and unambiguous evidence of wrongdoing, the White House said they’re doing nothing wrong, and there will not be an investigation. It seems the truth will remain a mystery.”
You used your access to tie your own hands, not to inform your readers. Had you simply acknowledged that you were never going to get credible information from the White House, you could have 1) found the evidence, 2) spoken to an actual expert on whether the evidence appeared valid, and the implications of it, 3) spoken to the many low-level government officials who work the issues, and reported how the policies being implemented were predicated on the evidence being true. When the White House tells pool reporters that your story is false, you can report it, along with an honest critique of whatever evidence they offer, (hint: they won’t have anything valid.)
So, here we are. Trump and his mouthpieces have been lying to your faces for over a year, and you are still falling over yourselves for “access”, and the chance to be lied to. Why? Do you aspire to this?
When the administration lies to your face, you have a demonstrated inability to report accurately. So stop allowing them to lie to you. Yes, you can even stop talking to them. When you accurately report what they’re doing, THEY’LL CALL YOU! And when they do, you’ll have all your evidence lined up, and be ready for them. So please, start by doing that, and stop allowing yourselves to be played for fools.
There is a good reason the public doesn’t trust what you report. And the reason is, you speak to people with zero credibility and treat them as credible. Over and over and over, again. You don’t even include a disclaimer such as, ..this person has a history of being completely untruthful when speaking on the record... ”
Stop it. Give up your zero-value “access” and report the facts, not the lies. The public will benefit. And that has rarely been so important as it is now.