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The Trump administration’s petulant ban on legacy news outlets—and the subsequent solidarity blackout from the rest of the press corps—presents traditional media with a glorious, unexpected gift: the chance to walk away from the White House beat forever.
The media rarely sacrifices a chance to make a story about them. When a lofty ideal is under threat, it’s a chance to declare relevance. Even when President Donald Trump’s one-sided bromance with Zohran Mamdani generated a temporary reprieve on the ban at Gracie Mansion, the reporters around Trump did not get on with asking Trump about what’s relevant to most people. “Are you banning outlets like CNN, MS NOW, and Politico in order to distract from the Iran war and high gas prices?” is a question about the press, when it could have been about the Iran war and high gas prices. Without a unified, consistent boycott of White House coverage and a focus on urgent policy matters, back-and-forth about the ban just keeps the press corps entangled in the relationship and inflates Trump’s sense of self even further.
“It’s interesting ’cause they said they were gonna boycott me, but they never boycott me,” he said at Gracie Mansion. “So, I wasn’t very worried about that. Look at all that press.”
Journalism’s biggest flex is not to demand access to Trump; it’s to show American citizens the press is so powerful that they don’t need it. If journalists want to prove they are essential to a functioning society, don’t talk about how essential you are. Be essential. If you’re a journalist, maybe you’ve heard about this concept before: Show, don’t tell.
What are you missing if you don’t show up for pool spray or a press availability? The White House has already signaled its disdain for the normal back-and-forth by not bothering to replace their press secretary. Does anyone think that the answers gleaned from bellowing questions at Trump while his hearing and hair alike struggle against helicopter wash are ideas that he would not share otherwise?
Think of it as self-preservation. Stop riding on Air Force One and you won’t be terrorist bait the next time around.
Don’t stop reporting on Trump and the effect Trump has on the world, no, those stories are more urgent than ever. Tell the stories of the toddlers forced to represent themselves in immigration court, military malpractice, undisguised grift, the affordability crisis, data centers bleeding rural America dry.
Think someone should be on hand for prosperity’s sake, if/when this particular dust-up is settled? Send the interns. Leave a static camera running for the history books.
I’ve been making the argument that the journalism talent that follows the President around is wasted for years. You say that constant coverage of the President keeps him accountable, I say, show me one instance where it has. The palace intrigue and circus stunts are click candy to us media junkies: His relationship with Natalie Harp is bonkers. I am fascinated by the backbiting and nervous gossip. It has nothing to do with the price of beef in Texas.
With only a few exceptions, the most game-changing stories in American political history have come from outside 1600 Pennsylvania avenue: Watergate developed on the city desk. The My Lai massacre? Independent journalist Seymour Hersh. Julie K. Brown broke the Epstein story for the Miami Herald. The New York Times won the 2026 Pulitzer for investigative reporting on Trump’s tariff and crypto cons with a team of twelve reporters, only one of them on the White House beat.
Abandon the briefing room, turn camera crew campsite “pebble beach” into a wasteland, make Steven Cheung think he’s left his phone on silent. Trump has made theater out of entertaining Oval Office visitors and cabinet meetings–now make him play to a near-empty room. You’re going to have to re-publish the Truth Social posts because that’s where we get policy announcements from these days, but remove as much oxygen as possible from the bariatric chamber where his ego lives.
Right now, the media’s grand huff over Trump’s censorious tantrum stands to benefit him: It shows an institution as filled with self-regard as the president himself, insistent about its importance even as righteous posturing about the First Amendment crowds out the stories that really matter to most Americans. Sure, democracy cannot survive without a free press. And you’re right, Trump’s ban signals an escalation in his broader attacks on journalism! This is very bad! I support the organizations suing over this, and I hope they win.
And then ditch the White House anyway.
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The post The White House Press Corps Should Stop Whining About Access and Start Reporting first appeared on Mediaite.
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