Banned Media

Is it wrong for the president to eject certain media agencies from the White House press room?  CNN, MSNOW, and Politico certainly think so.  Many other news agencies agree.  However, there is only so much space in the press room.  Do certain agencies have a right to that limited space?  Do they have more right to the space than an obscure newspaper from Wyoming or Iowa?  Sure, it makes sense to have news agencies with the greatest reach to have access as that gives the easiest route to disseminate news.  Then again, that could be a detriment if those news agencies are consistently hostile.

In the early days of the republic, there were party papers.  Andrew Jackson's Kitchen Cabinet had a couple of friendly newspaper editors as members.  Jackson's message was printed as he wanted it printed.  Did the people only get government propaganda through such a system?  No, the Whigs controlled newspapers as well, blasting whatever message the Jacksonian papers delivered.

Supposing that there are 100 seats in the pressroom, why can't the administration choose which agencies get them?  If a thousand news agencies across the country and internationally apply, could the administration just pick the 100 least hostile?  Would that be censorious?

The media is overwhelmingly left leaning, which means it is reliably hostile to Republicans and cheerleaders to Democrats.  A quick request from ChatGPT came up with these numbers:

With such an obvious tilt in the coverage, why wouldn't the administration take some action to mitigate it?  Where the Trump Administration seeks to limit access to proven hostile news agencies - which he claims produce 'fake news' - the Obama DOJ was aggressive in law enforcement regarding reporters and their sources.  He was getting net positive coverage and still sought to muzzle the media.

The entire press corps apparatus in the White House is a convenience first extended by President Theodore Roosevelt, which means it did not exist for the first half of the country's history.  There is no requirement for it.  Besides, Trump is constantly out speaking.  In his first term, he had 88 press conferences, which averages to around 2 a month.  By contrast, Biden had 37, less than 1 per month.  Trump was interviewed 326 times, or nearly 7 times a month; Biden 125, or 2.6 times per month.  There is no dearth of Trump in the media.