News/Commentary

Grown man crying alert: Brian Stelter laments on White House’s new assigned seats for the press

March 31, 2025 | | Print Article

The second Trump administration is giving more media outlets access to the briefing room, and the left cannot deal.

Liberals, legacy media, and left-wing outlets who’ve consistently been outraged by anything related to President Donald Trump are not adjusting well to the changes being made by the White House to deliver news the way the public wants to consume it. And CNN’s Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter was among those indignant over the seating chart for the White House press corps.

Sharing a link to an Axios “scoop” by Mike Allen, Stelter posted on X about the new seating plans that heretofore had been the domain of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

“The White House plans to impose its own seating chart for reporters in the briefing room in coming weeks, taking over a function long managed by the reporters themselves through the White House Correspondents’ Association,” the Axios report noted.

“The new layout will include representatives of TV, print, and digital outlets. The digital assignments will include both online influencers and newer organizations such as Axios, NOTUS, and Punchbowl,” the outlet continued.

“Major legacy outlets will still be included. But expect some to have diminished visibility compared with their customary spots in the first few rows,” Axios reported, quoting one official who said, “We want to balance disruption with responsibility.”

The unnamed senior White House official told Axios that plans have already been formalized for a “fundamental restructuring of the briefing room, based on metrics more reflective of how media is consumed today.”

“The goal isn’t merely favorable coverage,” the official said. “It’s truly an honest look at consumption [of the outlets’ coverage]. Influencers are important, but it’s tough because they aren’t [equipped to provide] consistent coverage. So the ability to cover the White House is part of the metrics.”

The WHCA is no longer in charge of who has access to the president in the Oval Office and Air Force One, another point of contention for the left-leaning press that is crying over its loss of control. But the latest pearl-clutching over the seating chart in the briefing room sparked plenty of reaction on social media.

“The decision re who gets to sit in taxpayer provided seats in a government building should not be made by journalists. It should be made by the press sec, as was standard until 2006,” former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher wrote.

Frieda Powers
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