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The White House Tries to Bully the WHCA

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Feb 16, 2024
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02.16.24

First Amendment Strike Force – THE WHITE HOUSE

  • It is like Bill Lumberg telling them, “Yeah — we’re gonna need you to stop covering that story…”

As the fallout from Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report continues, there is mounting difficulty inside the White House to contend with the reality that more members of the press are willing to discuss the president’s debilitating mental state. This week, Ian Sams issued one of his patented directives for the press to follow. (Oliver Darcy dutifully detailed the contents here.) 

The interesting aspect is that Sams sought to send his list of instructions for the press to the White House Correspondents Association, as if it would send marching orders to its members. WHCA President Kelly O’Donnell delivered a rebuke of sorts to Sams, essentially telling the spokesman that it is not a PR division for the administration (at least in an official capacity):

The WHCA does not, cannot and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news. The White House has far reach to make its positions known on [special counsel Robert Hur’s] report or any other matter.

It will be worth watching to see if this was done as a CYA maneuver to keep the reputation of the WHCA somewhat intact, or if it is an indicator of the body to be drifting away from its fealty to Biden with the election import looming larger.

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Democratic Custodial Services – NBC NEWS

At NBC, it looked over the issue of the Hur Report and the contested contents, and came to a conclusion – there will be a partisan fight to have the transcript released. Of course, the interpretation is that the Republicans demanding the release are the politicized entity, while the administration and the DOJ are dutifully taking care to weigh if this should get released and/or redacted:

And even once the declassification process concludes, the White House would still need sign off on releasing the transcript publicly and could exert executive privilege or cite privacy issues to prevent some portions from being disclosed.

This translates to the White House really wanting to release it, but possibly cannot do so…all while criticizing anyone who references the report as not being honest about the contents.

Reporting on the Mirror – CNN

  • This feels like a move akin to removing only some of the deck chairs.

Mark Thompson has made his most significant move since taking over CNN. (Not counting his revamp of the morning show.) The Wrap breaks the story that Thompson is looking to restructure the payout obligations at the network. He is looking to cull about $50 million – that is just in the salaries of on-air talent.

With this type of brutal approach to the elites within the CNN environment, the names who were carping the loudest about deposed CEO Chris Licht might be looking at a result worse than what they complained about:

Top CNN earners include prime-time anchor Anderson Cooper, who makes an estimated $20 million a year; Wolf Blitzer, who earns about $15 million; Jake Tapper, who pulls in more than $8.5 million; and Chris Wallace, who makes about $8 million, two insiders said. Other co-anchors, including John Berman, Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner, make in the $1 million to $2 million range.

Reporting on the Mirror – ABC NEWS

At ABC, tongues are wagging over the future of ABC News President Kim Godwin. The embattled network leader, who has long been attached to negative reports coming out of the news division, is considered to be a dead-executive-walking. It turns out that despite not being fired — and renewing her contract recently — another executive, Debrah O’Connell, has been promoted and is now in charge of ABC News.

This leads to the quite odd reality that Godwin remains the president of ABC News, but is reporting to O’Donnell as her underling. It is also considered a bad sign that she had signed a new deal:

“This is the beginning of the transition [of Godwin’s exit],” said one source close to the network. “Everyone gets renewed and then dumped. It’s the ABC News and Disney way.”

Low Octane Gas Lighting – NBC NEWS

NBC News claims that members of the LGBT𝜋 community are underrepresented in the video game universe. Citing a deeply scientific and not at all questionable study by GLAAD, it states that while 17% of gamers claim to be in the LGBT𝜋 realm, only 2% of video game characters are considered LGBT𝜋. 

This is a serious problem regarding…fictional characters, we are told. To begin rectifying this severe affront to societal norms, we would first need to address the overrepresentation on other groups in video games, such as hedgehogs, dragons, and zombies. Only then can true equity be achieved!

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