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The White House Correspondents’ Association, in an emergency board meeting, voted to “temporarily” reduce the number of reporters in the briefing room.
The step backward came in response to the surge in COVID-19 and the Omicron variant cases across the country, and in the nation’s capital in particular.
“Given the virulence of the spread, medical experts have once again advised that it would be prudent to substantially reduce the number of people working in the cramped, poorly ventilated workspace that we share,” WHCA President Steve Portnoy told members in an email.
The organization’s board voted unanimously to go back to the decreased seating that had been in place throughout the pandemic, allowing only 14 seats out of the 49 in the room to be used.
New: @whca, citing “cramped, poorly ventilated” work conditions in White House press room, institutes new 14-reporter limit in briefing room. Marks a return to restrictions it imposed before vaccines last year. Memo tonight to members from WHCA president @stevenportnoy: pic.twitter.com/368OjLAebJ
— Paul Farhi (@farhip) January 3, 2022
“A primary objective is ensuring we are able to hold the administration accountable to the public, while preventing an outbreak that might limit our ability to cover the president in close quarters,” Portnoy said in the message.
“THROUGH THE OMICRON VARIANT WAVE” pic.twitter.com/4KPasE2gLT
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) January 3, 2022
Requests for virtual briefings amid hysteria over the Omicron variant were reportedly not entertained by the Biden administration, according to The Washington Post.
“With a new and devastating form of coronavirus lost, White House reporters are urging journalist Jen Psaki to move their daily conversations online – but Psaki’s idea has been positive so far,” the outlet reported last week.
“The White House Correspondents’ Association has arranged for day-to-day interviews at Zoom or another online platform to avoid face-to-face contact in a smaller White House room,” The Post added. “The WHCA worries that journalists are at high risk of contracting the omicron virus – or transmitting it to others – when they gather in a 49-room orientation room or small space behind them.”
The WHCA announcement on Sunday’s vote to reduce capacity in the briefing room was met with derision on social media.
media doesn’t wanna go to work, sad! https://t.co/e76xY67q7d
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) January 3, 2022
For a room in which each person is vaccinated and I believe had to test negative to enter. If that doesn’t tell you what they really think of the vaccines and tests nothing will.
— Mark Weiss (@markhweiss) January 3, 2022
The most powerful country in the world that can send a rocket to the most distant parts of our solar system can’t provide a ventilated room for reporters?
— Bernard Silverman (@DonKeehotey) January 3, 2022
More telling, to many on Twitter, was what the WHCA decision and the new chart signified.
How convenient. This is one way to make sure pesky reporters from non-major news outlets don’t ask annoying questions. https://t.co/OrYOinZomC
— John Fund (@johnfund) January 3, 2022
The Spectator’s Amber Athey explained in several tweets, noting that the “White House press corps is 99% vaccinated.”
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
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
Others on Twitter also called out what wasn’t being said out loud.
Mmmmmm….wonder who they’ll exclude?
— Joseph Ewing (Figure/It/Out) (@josephewing80) January 3, 2022
Nothing to do with vaccines. It’s about controlling the daily avalanche of bad information from tumbling over the incompetent regime. The plandemic and “vaccines” are merely cover.
— Elephant Gun (@EGCollective) January 3, 2022
Basically will only allow Doocy in once a week. Wow.
— Not Anthony (@PhinsTweets2) January 3, 2022
How convenient after a disaster of a week off and a tidal wave of hard questions that need to be answered!
— Kristi Bibbey (@kristibibbey) January 3, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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