Dispute over access to a historic White House event found an official slamming a report as just the latest example of “fake news.”
Regardless of what happens in the octagon, Sunday is shaping up to be an occasion unlike any other during UFC Freedom250 from the lawn of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. While UFC President Dana White anticipates “Super Bowl-type numbers,” limited in-person access to the event has the White House calling out a Washington Post report on credentialing.
Using the headline, “White House will be closed to reporters during UFC fight — unless UFC lets them in,” Post report Scott Nover contended, “The White House is closing its doors to reporters on Sunday, the day of the big UFC fight on the South Lawn, unless UFC lets them in. In a rare move, the White House is ceding control of all press credentialing to the mixed-martial-arts company.”
Not long after the article was shared on X, White House assistant press secretary Olivia Wales fired back, “This is fake news. The White House Press Office has credentialed a press pool of 35 members for this historic event on Sunday — expanded from the normal press pool of 21 members. The pool will be providing full coverage on the South Lawn for the duration of UFC Freedom250.”
This is fake news.
The White House Press Office has credentialed a press pool of 35 members for this historic event on Sunday – expanded from the normal press pool of 21 members.
The pool will be providing full coverage on the South Lawn for the duration of UFC Freedom250. https://t.co/SuAP3CEVJv
— Olivia Wales (@olivia_wales) June 9, 2026
Within Nover’s piece, the reporter cited an email from CBS News senior White House correspondent and White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang, writing, “Weijia Jiang, the association’s president, told members in an email that only the White House press poolers — the designated journalists who follow the president on behalf of various news outlets when he is in locations that cannot accommodate a larger group — will be allowed on White House grounds unless UFC gives them press credentials.”
Jiang said, “The WHCA has been pushing back on this, but we have been told there will be various Secret Service access points across campus and that the [White House North Lawn] is being used as a staging area for the fighters and UFC filming zones, and the [White House] is standing firm.”
Nover countered Wales by insisting after her comment on an expanded pool, “Still, the story is accurate. Press corps members aside from the pool are not allowed on White House grounds that day, and the UFC is handling non-pool credentialing.”
In its own report on the credentialing, Axios detailed that the UFC’s “roughly 20 credentials for journalists” outside the approved press pool would include “Hollywood and sports trade publications” like Rolling Stone. It was also noted that there had been a disagreement over whether or not reporters would be permitted to use cameras during coverage, considering Paramount maintained exclusive rights on the broadcast set to stream live on Sunday on the subscription platform Paramount+.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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