Matthew Chapman
February 26, 2025
RAW STORY
People attend a protest march against U.S. President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Eric Adams in Manhattan's Washington Square Park in New York City, U.S., February 22, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The American press is "not equipped" to cover a true authoritarian strongman presidency like President Donald Trump is creating, warned Huffington Post senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte in a dire analysis Wednesday.
"The Washington, D.C., press corps, used to playing small ball for small exclusives, has been suddenly thrust into a presidential administration that appears hell-bent on transforming our constitutional republic into something entirely different," wrote Dáte. "For decades, the coin of the realm in political journalism was access. Who you knew determined what you knew, and especially what 'inside' information the people you knew were willing to give you."
That kind of reporting can often lead to big scoops in a political environment where politicians play by the rules and care about norms and democracy. But it's wholly inadequate for the beast the free press, and the American people at large, now face, he wrote.
"In the before days, if a reporter had the opportunity to get a new tax proposal from Mitt Romney’s campaign a day before he announced it, OK, whatever. If President Barack Obama’s campaign had some research they wanted to plant about Romney’s businesses, sure," he wrote. "In the end, the source relationships that led to that genre of stories were harmless. Whether Obama won or Romney, the future of the republic was secure. That is no longer the case. Before our very eyes, Donald Trump and his administration, with what so far has been an extraordinarily pliant Republican Congress, are taking those exact steps that autocrats who were initially democratically elected take to consolidate power."
The problem, he wrote, is that the old strategy requires reporters to schmooze with Trump loyalists who are working to undermine both constitutional rights and the free press itself, and that's simply unsustainable. This is evidenced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's increasingly ruthless crackdown on any press criticism of Trump, from barring the Associated Press from using the name "Gulf of Mexico," to decreeing the White House itself chooses who sits in the press pool — and kicking out the Huffington Post for asking Trump about Jan. 6 pardons.
White House reporters can no longer just fiddle while Rome burns, Dáte warned — they have to stop playing the old games and be straight with their readers about what is happening.
"Trump made clear what he thought of democracy when he tried to end it four years ago by trying to overturn an election he had lost. Far too many of us accepted the bargain to leave out that context in our coverage for the sake of access to Trump’s campaign and the chance for an interview," he wrote. "That was then, when the idea of a nation careening toward autocracy might have seemed just a wildly remote possibility. It seems neither wild nor remote now."
People attend a protest march against U.S. President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Eric Adams in Manhattan's Washington Square Park in New York City, U.S., February 22, 2025. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The American press is "not equipped" to cover a true authoritarian strongman presidency like President Donald Trump is creating, warned Huffington Post senior White House correspondent S.V. Dáte in a dire analysis Wednesday.
"The Washington, D.C., press corps, used to playing small ball for small exclusives, has been suddenly thrust into a presidential administration that appears hell-bent on transforming our constitutional republic into something entirely different," wrote Dáte. "For decades, the coin of the realm in political journalism was access. Who you knew determined what you knew, and especially what 'inside' information the people you knew were willing to give you."
That kind of reporting can often lead to big scoops in a political environment where politicians play by the rules and care about norms and democracy. But it's wholly inadequate for the beast the free press, and the American people at large, now face, he wrote.
"In the before days, if a reporter had the opportunity to get a new tax proposal from Mitt Romney’s campaign a day before he announced it, OK, whatever. If President Barack Obama’s campaign had some research they wanted to plant about Romney’s businesses, sure," he wrote. "In the end, the source relationships that led to that genre of stories were harmless. Whether Obama won or Romney, the future of the republic was secure. That is no longer the case. Before our very eyes, Donald Trump and his administration, with what so far has been an extraordinarily pliant Republican Congress, are taking those exact steps that autocrats who were initially democratically elected take to consolidate power."
The problem, he wrote, is that the old strategy requires reporters to schmooze with Trump loyalists who are working to undermine both constitutional rights and the free press itself, and that's simply unsustainable. This is evidenced by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt's increasingly ruthless crackdown on any press criticism of Trump, from barring the Associated Press from using the name "Gulf of Mexico," to decreeing the White House itself chooses who sits in the press pool — and kicking out the Huffington Post for asking Trump about Jan. 6 pardons.
White House reporters can no longer just fiddle while Rome burns, Dáte warned — they have to stop playing the old games and be straight with their readers about what is happening.
"Trump made clear what he thought of democracy when he tried to end it four years ago by trying to overturn an election he had lost. Far too many of us accepted the bargain to leave out that context in our coverage for the sake of access to Trump’s campaign and the chance for an interview," he wrote. "That was then, when the idea of a nation careening toward autocracy might have seemed just a wildly remote possibility. It seems neither wild nor remote now."
White House seizes control of press pool that covers Trump
Copyright AP Photo
By Rory Sullivan
Published on 26/02/2025 -
Critics say the decision, which breaks with decades of tradition, will undermine independent journalism.
The White House has said it will decide which reporters get access to US President Donald Trump in intimate settings such as the Oval Office, a move that some warn could be “dangerous” for the future of American democracy.
For decades, the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), an independent group of journalists, has overseen the rotating pool of reporters that is granted access to the US president when space is limited.
However, White House White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will end this system.
“The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” Leavitt said.
Trump’s press secretary attempted to justify the decision as a modernising move.
“A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House,” she told reporters.
“It's beyond time that the White House press operation reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925,” she added.
Her announcement came the day after a Trump-appointed judge refused a request from the Associated Press to be reinstated to pooled presidential events.
The Trump administration barred the news agency from having reporters on Air Force One and in the Oval Office due to its decision to continue using “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America”.
Trump, who ordered the name change early in his second presidential term, has tied the AP court case to the press pool decision announced by Leavitt on Tuesday.
“We're going to be now calling those shots,” Trump said.
Media experts are troubled by the development, since it gives Trump the power to choose who covers him.
Jon Marshall, a media history professor at Northwestern University, described the change as “a dangerous move for democracy”.
R
Meanwhile, Eugene Daniels, the president of the WHCA, said that the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States”.
Peter Baker, a journalist at the New York Times, also criticised the move.
“Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn't pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions,” he tweeted. “Trump has just declared that he will.”
Copyright AP Photo
By Rory Sullivan
Published on 26/02/2025 -
Critics say the decision, which breaks with decades of tradition, will undermine independent journalism.
The White House has said it will decide which reporters get access to US President Donald Trump in intimate settings such as the Oval Office, a move that some warn could be “dangerous” for the future of American democracy.
For decades, the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), an independent group of journalists, has overseen the rotating pool of reporters that is granted access to the US president when space is limited.
However, White House White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced on Tuesday that the Trump administration will end this system.
“The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office,” Leavitt said.
Trump’s press secretary attempted to justify the decision as a modernising move.
“A select group of DC-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House,” she told reporters.
“It's beyond time that the White House press operation reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925,” she added.
Her announcement came the day after a Trump-appointed judge refused a request from the Associated Press to be reinstated to pooled presidential events.
The Trump administration barred the news agency from having reporters on Air Force One and in the Oval Office due to its decision to continue using “Gulf of Mexico” instead of “Gulf of America”.
Trump, who ordered the name change early in his second presidential term, has tied the AP court case to the press pool decision announced by Leavitt on Tuesday.
“We're going to be now calling those shots,” Trump said.
Media experts are troubled by the development, since it gives Trump the power to choose who covers him.
Jon Marshall, a media history professor at Northwestern University, described the change as “a dangerous move for democracy”.
R
Meanwhile, Eugene Daniels, the president of the WHCA, said that the decision “tears at the independence of a free press in the United States”.
Peter Baker, a journalist at the New York Times, also criticised the move.
“Every president of both parties going back generations subscribed to the principle that a president doesn't pick the press corps that is allowed in the room to ask him questions,” he tweeted. “Trump has just declared that he will.”
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