Sir Xsarus wrote:
Quote:
The press pool is selected by the WHCA(the same organization making this statement).
Your understanding is incorrect (I'd argue deliberately so, given the lengths the media is going to create this false impression). The people added to the gaggle in addition to the pool were selected by the Press Secretary. The press pool was invited to the gaggle. Just like they are for all gaggles. Just like they have always been to all gaggles. There is literally nothing at all unusual about this, except that the media decided out of the blue to pretend that there was.
The only even remotely vague complaint these media outlets could have is that they weren't on the list added in addition to the press pool. But this is normal. When the PS holds a gaggle in his office, he physically can't allow more than maybe 10 or 12 people in there. The full corps is like what 60 members? They can't all fit. They never fit. A large portion of the press corps is always excluded from those gaggles. This is, in fact, exactly why the press pool exists. As long as they were invited there is no problem.
The only difference, as I've mentioned repeatedly, is that those who weren't added to the list decided to demand that they be added, despite most not being added most of the time for these events, and then made a big show of not being allowed into the Press Secretaries office when they decided to show up anyway despite not having been invited, and then wrote stories about how they were excluded and it was so unfair, and whaaa whaaa whaaa....!
Totally made up. And obviously so for anyone who spends any time actually looking at the facts. The media is counting on most people not doing this, and most people just allowing their impressions and understandings from the story to influence them. Which is more or less precisely where the whole "fake news" narrative is coming from. It's this kind of stuff that is infuriating people, and the media just doing yet another blatant example of that behavior is not helping at all.