Why is the WH banning Cameras in press briefings?

No cameras, no live audio and no Sean Spicer: The latest White House press briefing, annotated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/06/22/no-cameras-no-live-audio-and-no-sean-spicer-the-latest-white-house-press-briefing-annotated/

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/339138-white-house-reporters-object-to-off-camera-briefings

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/19/media/white-house-press-briefing-donald-trump-media/index.html

It makes zero sense.

Why are they being such snow flakes? Is the White House now a safe space?

It makes it harder for them to flip-flop on a issue if you have video evidence that they do so.

Can you try not to be as bias as you always are?

But let´s hear what someone else has to say on the matter.

"Taking the daily briefing off-camera is not a new idea. Former Press Secretary Mike McCurry, who served under President Bill Clinton, has publicly said he regrets being the first press secretary to put the briefing on camera. Now, he says, every reporter asks the same type of question just so they get the clip of themselves being tough on the press secretary. It all becomes just a show."

So sorry but you may want to consider your approach when even the democrats agree with cameras being at the briefings is a bad idea.

I disagree with the Democrats on this as well.

Sorry, not everyone plays "teams" with this shit like you do.

For someone not playing on a team you sure spend a lot of time on the left side

And actually even some reporters think cameras in the regular press briefings is a bad thing, so i guess you disagree with everyone on this. Except of course the "Camera using" media.

So journalists would ask different questions if the cameras weren't there?

Cameras add 10 pounds. That's the most likely reason.

My guess is that as said , it won´t be a show and you won´t have reporters acting up for the camera.

Shows the priorities of news outlets I guess.

I completely forgot about that. With all the cameras there, Spicer is always seen as fat man instead of the slim guy he normally is. :P

keep the cameras but replace the reporters with robots who don't care about screen time

Yup, but when you can by making it a show get the highest ratings ever, it's a vicious circle that just makes it worse and worse.

Yes. I disagree with people saying there shouldn't be cameras at the press breifing.

Like I said, not everone is super embroiled in partisan politics.

Also, what left side? Beating on Trump isn't a left side thing. 36%.

Who cares? Write the shit down and print it. If the White House tries to lie, every reporter there will be there calling them on it.

That's the transparency at work.

I imagine they think it will stop their lies from being noticed though.

So they can lie about the stupid shit they say, of course. Trump usually flip flops on one issue 3 or 4 times in a single sentence, and so does Spicer and the ugly girl, so this just makes it easier to lie to avoid criticism.

Because everyone wants to watch the shit show except the pieces of shit.

After they're done cleaning up everything, all we are going to get out of the Whitehouse are pieces of corn and peanut. And we'll be like "Ummm, so is this legit corn and peanut, or is this from you turds?" and they'll be like "Ummmmm, no questions!"

With very few exceptions (like on-going classified military operations, for example), I feel government should be nearly 100% transparent. I think that at any moment a citizen of the US should be able to log in to a website and view exactly what their rep has spent their money on. I feel that if their congressmen is working, they should know where they are at exactly and what they are doing. I think there should be, at minimum, typed documents and ideally audio recordings of any and all dealings, transactions, and so forth of jsut about every single government thing going on whenever possible.

And, above all else, there should be absolutely no attempts like this to hide what's going on, sanction what the press can and can't do, cherry pick what is viewed or not viewed, and so forth.

This is really all quite frightening. This is Nixon-level type shit, and we should all be really concerned.

It's beyond Nixon.....more like dictator style.

Running it like a business?

@horgen: dictasiness? Businatorship?

Because the white house can't predict who will hide in the bushes next.

I prefer businatorship atm. Once they start telling the average joe how to live their life, then it is a dictasiness. :P

You're such a drama queen.

Man i'm so oppressed in USA right now.

That's not what we are saying, well that's not what I am saying. I'm just saying that things start somewhere, and you need to at the very least identify them before they get out of hand.

I know that, more likely than not, all that's going on is the man-child Trump and his ego just can't handle any more bad press, so he is just doing the last resort and pretty much limiting how much official exposure the Whitehouse has to save it from embarrassment.

But this sets a pretty terrible precedent; if a leader can do this out of basic shame, what does this say if a future leader wants to do it for more sinister means? Or what if it's all just smoke and mirrors to begin with and Trump really is up to something?

It doesn't matter what they (Trump and his cabinet, and in the interest of being fair, the rest of the whole thing, democrats and republicans)want, it's about what we want. This is our god damn government, he is our president (for better or worse). We didn't put him up there for the fun of it, to amuse us, to see his ratings go up and down.

I guess what I am trying to say is that Trump is just treating the presidency like his plaything, and I've never really seen that before. Sure there have been abuses of power, but there has always been respect. Trump just lacks any sort of respect, reverence, or anything. He exists in that office solely for Trump. That is, with no drama intended, the mindset of a dictator. Self before others.

I see him calling out the press for what they are. He uses twitter and bypasses them entirely.

@n64dd: Trump is calling the press what they aren't. Not what they are. "You're saying nice things, you're truthful. Oh you said something nasty, you're fake." yeah that's not calling them what they are at all.

The irony of this whole thing is he wouldn't be in this mess if he A.) didn't use Twitter, and B.) had a half-decent public relations team, and C.) just STFU half the time and took his licks like every other president. Witch hunt my ass.

And I don't know about you, but I don't want to get all my information from Trump's Twitter account.

I don't want to get it from CNN so I guess we're at a standstill.

I want it from a variety of sources. CNN, FOX, local news, and so forth. I think it is a little close minded not to dabble in the other side's point of view, which is why outlets leaning counter to your views exist. Well not really, but it's nice at least.

Ideally every media outlet would be 100% objective, but then where is the fun in that :D

We'll have to agree to disagree on this. The press is getting what it deserves.

@n64dd: yeah you're probably right. During the election, especially the week before, night of, and week after, it was pretty damn shameful. And really amusing. Watching Rachel Maddow more or less lose her shit on TV was classic, I have to admit. Votes came in, she got quieter...and quieter...and...hey, where's Rachel?

Yeah, that was embarrassing as shit.

He isnt a dictator just yet... but he is showing some disturbing trends. This is one of those many disturbing trends,

@Maroxad: Yeah, but to be fair, neither will the revolution, brotha

As much as I dislike Madcow, she's somehow managed this:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/05/business/media/msnbc-rachel-maddow-andrew-lack-ratings.html

Probably a combo of Billo the fiend being fired, Trump's approval, and Tucker being an insufferable turd.

Holy shit are you for real?

All Trump did was say no to cameras at the white house briefings, a briefing that is nothing but a soap oprea where Spicer provide the leftist comedians with jokes.

The press is still free, can still do what the fudge they want within the laws of course.

So try not to overdramatize.

@Jacanuk: I'm not dramatizing, I'm just saying shit starts somewhere. And of course they are still free, but they are more limited than they were before.

And in three months Trump might do something else to limit the information we receive or what the press can do, and you'll say "Oh, don't be such a drama queen".

And in eight months. And in two years? And three years? Three years and six months? And if he gets reelected? What about seven years from now?

OK, maybe I am being dramatic :P But I don't think I can be too dramatic when we have a lying, xenophobic, sexual-assaulting, slumlord, con-artist for a president. I can literally put on tap dancing shoes, stage a play about it, and say all the above and say it like this guy talks, and it still would not be too dramatic.

They can still record the press briefings, right?

Semi related: I recall a CNN host bashing Fox News as "state TV". Man, does that sound right.

Yes. They can still use their iphones and other devices.

So I just had a thought on this, and this is just a theory, what if Trump himself was led to believe that this would be a good way to get more done by someone in the white house because less news coverage would mean less outrage, and thus less political backlash which would sort of be true. However the true motive of whoever's idea this was originally could have been to keep Trump even less informed than he already is? We know he doesn't read a lot of briefings, and we know he watches a lot of news on tv. Less news to watch regarding the white house means less for Trump to be informed of at 7-8pm at night and less 3am tweets to deal with along with more freedom to work on one's own agenda.

So safe spaces.

Oh and, you mean most comedians. You don't have to be a leftist to make fun of this shit. You really have to take off your party politic goggles if it's actually changing real life perceptions this wildly for you.

Sorry , but i do not see the limit? The media is still there they just have to use their brains and write down what is said and report it like that. We can still pick up a newspaper and read right?

Also it´s not a limit of information, what he is doing is because of the show Spicer have created by being Chemical Ali and Trump not thinking before speaking. , nothing will stop the information from coming out.

But ya people are blowing this out of proportion , this is nothing. And poor SNL they won´t have spicer to make fun of anymore.

The current administration is utterly terrified with the concept of transparency and accountability.

Obviously they are trying to keep information from everyone under 40, because we all know if you can't stream it to a smart phone, no one under 40 will know it happened. Hell, I'm not sure anyone under 40 even knows how to read or listen anymore.

TV "news" reporters are people who want fame, but are too ugly for Hollywood.