White House Press Corps Slams Biden Spox For Using WHCA to Disseminate Government’s ‘View of What Is News’
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, hit back hard at Biden spokesman Ian Sams on Thursday after he chastized the press earlier in the week over its coverage of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report.
“The February 13th letter from White House counsel spokesman, lan Sams, to the White House Correspondents’ Association is misdirected,” began a statement from O’Donnell, who is an NBC News correspondent.
“As a non-profit organization that advocates for its members in their efforts to cover the presidency, the WHCA does not, cannot and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news,” the statement continued, adding:
The White House has far reach to make its positions known on the Hur report or any other matter.
The White House has the contact information for every bureau chief, editor and reporter covering the beat, and should reach out to them directly with any concerns about their editorial decision-making. In its 110-year history, our association has never controlled or policed the journalism that is published or broadcast by our members or their employers.
“It is inappropriate for the White House to utilize internal pool distribution channels, primarily for logistics and the rapid sharing of need- to-know information, to disseminate generalized critiques of news coverage. We will not distribute them going forward,” O’Donnell concluded, making the White House Correspondents’ Association’s position crystal clear.
On Tuesday, Sams addressed a letter to O’Donnell and the WHCA membership and charged that “many outlets have reported striking inaccuracies that misrepresent the report’s conclusion about the President, and reporters in the White House Briefing Room have asked questions that include false content or are based on false premises.”
Sams went on to list various headlines he took issue with and offered a detailed explanation of Hur’s report’s findings that he argued were widely overlooked in the press.
