White House administration commits mass removal of journalists

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The U.S President Donald Trump’s administration has committed what journalists are describing to be a mass removal of press passes allowing career reporters to easily access the White House. The Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank also received notice this week that his press pass had been revoked. A number of reporters in the White House press corps wrote on Wednesday. Milbank wrote, “There’s something wrong with a president having the power to decide which journalists can cover him. I was part of a mass purge of hard pass holders after the White House implemented a new standard that designated as unqualified almost the entire White House press corps, including all 7 of The Post’s White House correspondents”.

The recent move points a sharp reduction in the number of White House daily press briefings and continued tensions between the administration and reporters tasked with covering it. The press secretary of White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced she would seek to limit the number of journalists with hard passes based on whether they need to be physically present at the White House for 90 or more days of their jobs during a 180-day period. Milbank suggested he was the only Washington Post employee not to receive an exception to the new rules due to he is a Trump critic. The White House has offered some exceptions to the new rules for senior journalists.

News outlets that have contested the change are reportedly in the process of securing shorter-term passes and hard passes for those with special circumstances. Sanders also claimed the decision to purge hard passes came from the U.S Secret Service. She added, “No one’s access is being limited”. Milbank said that he wasn’t looking for pity while pointing how the sharp reduction in briefings has devalued White House coverage anyway. He said, “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”.