(TRUMPS) White House revokes press passes for dozens of journalists
In what appears to be
an unprecedented move, the White House revoked the press passes of a significant chunk of the Washington press corps because they didn’t meet a new standard, according to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank. Under the new rules, rolled out earlier this year, in order to qualify for the highest level of access—known as a “hard pass”—journalists had to be present in the White House for at least 90 days out of a 180-day period. According to Milbank, virtually the entire press corps failed to meet this new test, including all six of the Post’s White House correspondents. Media outlets then had to apply for exceptions to cover their senior journalists, or settle for six-month passes, which don’t allow as much access...
... Milbank noted that, since dozens of senior correspondents didn’t meet the new standards either, “they
all serve at the pleasure of Press Secretary Sarah Sanders” and
“therefore, in theory,
can have their credentials revoked any time they annoy Trump or his aides.”...
