A feud between One America News Network and the White House Correspondents’ Association has been elevated to a White House matter as attorneys for the conservative news outlet ask President Trump to exert greater control over the White House press briefings.
On April 25, OAN attorney Bruce Fein wrote White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, urging them to act on alleged preferential treatment at White House press briefings during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The evidence compels the conclusion that WHCA has discriminated against OAN in the allocation of Briefing Room seat assignments and auxiliary space for desks and live hits on the White House lawn based on viewpoint,” Fein wrote in the letter to Meadows. “The constitutional case for the White House Press Office to take control over the Press Briefing Room seating arrangements and auxiliary space for White House journalists and to end the WHCA private monopoly over government property and otherwise in these matters is overwhelming. To fail to do so would continue viewpoint based First Amendment exclusion and hijacking of public property for private gain that would shock most Americans.”
Fein argued that the WHCA is a private organization that has no authority to regulate or control the White House briefing room and that its attempts to bar OAN from the briefings were in retaliation for OAN’s Trump-friendly coverage.
On April 1, the WHCA excluded OAN from the coronavirus briefing rotation over what it said was reporter Chanel Rion’s failure to adhere to social distancing guidelines established by the association during the pandemic. The next day, however, Rion was invited to attend the briefings by then-press secretary Stephanie Grisham. Until the press briefings were abruptly canceled by Trump last week, the president continued calling on Rion, who had relocated to a corner near the back of the room.
Fein said the WHCA overstepped legal boundaries to assert control over who is allowed inside the briefing room. Fein suggested the White House adopt the Supreme Court’s model, which features a public information officer appointed by the government to consider press credentials.
“[WHCA] has no ownership over the property,” Fein told Just the News. “It has no leasehold interest over the property. It doesn’t decide who is a trespasser. … This government property site is dedicated for public use. It’s not for the private use of the White House Correspondents’ Association.”
In late April, OAN founder Robert Herring threatened to take the WHCA to court if it refused to “make sure freedom of the press isn’t silenced.”
On Friday, Rion slammed the WHCA as partisan “gatekeepers” who shouldn’t be allowed to select which reporters are allowed into the briefings.
“They don’t get to decide who accesses that room,” Rion said. “They are right now serving as gatekeepers. They don’t get to decide whose viewpoints get to get in or out. That is not their domain, and that is none of their business.”
The WHCA and White House did not immediately return the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
