At his Substack, journalist Mike Cernovich offers some insights into the White House press corps — the White House Correspondents Association — which provides legacy mainstream media with national political news:

The White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) has the power to control seat assignments and credentialing. When you walk inside the briefing room, it’s not first come, first served for seating. Privileged members of regime media are sat in the front row. Independent media, if they can even attend the briefing with a “day pass,” must stand in the aisles.

The WHCA controls who gets full-time passes (called hard passes). These are tightly regulated, and its used as a way to shut out reporters who do not go along with the establishment propaganda.

“How Trump can Reform the “Mean Girls” White House Press Corps,” November 27, 2024

None of that should seem surprising; it is an Old Boys/Old Girls Network. But that can come at the expense of getting the news out.

Because Cernovich is a conservative, he isn’t popular with the rest of the liberal-leaning press corps. Thus:

When I wanted to attend a White House press briefing, I had to email the White House. Sometimes they wouldn’t reply until the last minute, so I’d have to sit around near the White House waiting. If they were diligent, they’d put me on a list of approved names to attend that day’s briefing. I’d wait in a long line. Sometimes I’d be banned from entering. This infamously happened when HR McMaster was giving a press briefing.

There might be room for me to stand, or there might not be. This uncertainty meant I didn’t travel from California to DC as often as I would have been able to under a fair process. “White House Press Corps”

Cernovich offers strategies for reform, including

Step 2. Close off White House grounds to members of the WHCA except when a briefing is occuring. Most of what occurs on White House grounds is clout chasing. News outlets want the backdrop of the White House to make themselves seem more important and official. There’s no reason for these petty gossips to be roaming around unsupervised.

Is reform worth the trouble though?

Trust in such legacy media has been declining for years, especially among young people. They are viewing much less “six o’clock news” than their elders and more streaming services and interactive social media.

While Cernovich hopes to reform the White House Correspondents Association, under the circumstances, a case could be made for just letting it slowly die an easy natural death.