The White House Correspondents Association, which is run by MSM reporters, has just reduced the briefing room to only 14 seats, claiming the virulence of Omicron is to blame:
Just now @whca announces that, after an emergency board meeting, they unanimously voted to “temporarily” reduce the White House briefing room to just 14 seats in response to omicron.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 3, 2022
“THROUGH THE OMICRON VARIANT WAVE” pic.twitter.com/4KPasE2gLT
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 3, 2022
What a coincidence in an election year, just as the Biden administration has been meeting with newsrooms to convince them to spin his bad economy into a good one. I’m sure this has nothing to do with how badly Democrats want to win this year in the House and Senate races. No, of course not. ❋COUGH❋
According to Amber Athey, editor of the Spectator, this is different than the last time pandemic precautions ruled the newsroom:
The White House press corps is 99% vaccinated https://t.co/TmExViUX5I
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
When the WHCA first limited briefing attendance during the pandemic, there was at least one rotating seat available to accommodate all WHCA members. Now the briefing room appears to be limited to only outlets with a previously assigned seat.
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
Let me explain: smaller & independent outlets would normally stand in the briefing room aisles bc they don’t get an assigned seat from the WHCA. They cannot do that now because of the “omicron surge”.
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
Previously, the WHCA sought to accommodate these members during the pandemic by giving them a seat to take turns in. That seat does not exist this time around.
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
What this means in practice is that there will be less representation in the briefing room from non-MSM outlets and thus likely fewer challenging Qs
— Amber Athey (@amber_athey) January 3, 2022
The WHCA is supposed to revisit this in a month’s time. I guess we’ll find out if this is really ‘temporary’ or not.