Trump's Plans to Shake Up White House Press Briefing Spells Crisis for Journalism
By trying to solve for the legacy media's failures, Trump's administration may exacerbate the issues already plaguing independent journalists.
IF 2008 was the Facebook election, and 2016 was the Twitter election, 2024 has undoubtedly been the streamer and podcast election. Presidential candidates like Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and Robert Kennedy Jr. made seminal appearances on streaming platforms and podcasts such as The Joe Rogan Experience, Andrew Schulz’ Flagrant, Adin Ross’ stream, Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy, Bill Maher’s Club Random, Theo Von’s This Past Weekend, Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory, and so much more. That decision arguably played a role in the election outcome (to Trump and RFK Jr.’s benefit) given its symbol as a repudiation of legacy news media institutions.
But with murmurings coming from Donald Trump Jr., who’s been holding conversations with the president-elect Donald Trump on the potential changes to come to the White House press briefing personnel, we may be looking at the downstream effects of the evolution of media and its erosion of what is left of journalism—traditional journalism—as we know it.
On his podcast Triggered this past week, titled “Regime Media Imploding: What’s Next for MSNBC?,” and featuring Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles, Don Jr. reveals details of the talks he’s been having with the president-elect on his plans for the press under his incoming administration. “Given how the media has behaved [in recent years],” Don Jr. said, “we had the conversation of opening up the press room to a lot of these independent journalists.”
If Don Jr.’s words are taken as is, this is an incredibly revolutionary idea, especially at this crucial moment in the zeitgeist where “regime media [is] imploding,” as Don Jr.’s podcast title puts it, and independent media is on the rise. As his guest Michael Knowles delineates in regards to corporate news media, “If they’re dishonest, if they’re not asking questions that are in the interest of the American people, and the American people aren’t even paying attention to them, what is this, a charity? Is the White House Briefing Room a charity now for journalists who otherwise would be out of work?”
It’s a remarkably fair question to be asking at this juncture, especially when you realize that it’s never even occurred to ask that question because the practice has become so steeped in tradition. What exactly is the purpose of keeping a borderline consistent lineup of corporate news journalists, who belong to failing legacy news outlets and networks, if the majority of them are ultimately tasked with manipulating narratives in such a way that, without fail, always benefits their political leanings and agenda? Why not simply credential journalists based on merit, reach and impact, and journalistic integrity? In Don Jr.’s words “If the New York Times has lied, they’ve been adverse to everything, they’re functioning as the marketing arm of the Democrat Party, why not open [the press room] up to people who have larger viewerships, stronger followings?”
Don Jr.’s proposal is valid. But given that the “people who have larger viewerships” and “independent journalists” who president-elect Donald Trump has ingratiated himself with, during his months campaigning, are nothing but podcasters, YouTubers, and social media influencers, this should be a warning sign for those who hope to preserve the integrity and essence of traditional journalism. While many wish to witness the utter collapse of corporate journalism as it stands, very few wish to see that model be replaced by another crop of unserious individuals who cosplay as journalists but whose function is total subservience to the party in power.
On Don Jr.’s podcast, he mentions the likes of Joe Rogan and Michael Knowles as potential candidates he’d like to see fill some of the 49 seats allotted to official press members. At no point did he mention actual dogged independent journalists working for platforms such as The Gray Zone, System Update, The Last American Vagabond, Racket News, and much more. “I’d love to see Rogan in the White House press briefing, or even rotate guys out,” he said, proposing the idea of no one being too comfortable as they’ve been in past years.
If White House press briefings are to be live-streamed by 20 year old streamers with a large viewership and following, and if serious and sensitive questions about domestic and international policies and priorities are to be fielded by comedian podcasters and YouTubers handpicked by the administration, traditional journalism as we know it would have taken one step forward and ten steps backward. This much was observed a month ago on the System Update show titled “Will Podcasters Replace Journalists? The State of Alternative Media,” addressing Trump and Kamala Harris’ podcast media campaign strategies and the implications. Independent journalist Lee Fang frames up the dilemma succinctly:
“Could you imagine trying to understand the policy positions, the political environment, the policy landscape ahead of us by only listening to these podcasts that the candidates are going on? You’d have no idea what’s going on in the world listening to them. You get no pushback from the hosts on the candidates… And I just got to think, if you’re a regular person with a busy job, and busy with their family, and the best kind of information you’re getting is tuning into one of these pop podcasts… what matters here are the personnel choices of the next administration, what are the big policy choices?”
Fang further illustrates his point, sharing: “for these kind of quick-buck, subscriber-based content producers, there’s no reporting, there’s no amount of research of policy positions, there’s no knowledge of political history, there’s no attempt to hold a person accountable. It’s very easy to do, and it’s very profitable. But it’s not really journalism.”
In line with this trend was the scene at the Democratic National Convention three months ago, where hundreds of press credentials were allotted to pro-Kamala TikTok influencers instead of journalists, per reporting from award-winning independent journalist Glenn Greenwald. Perhaps this event alone should’ve alerted us to what may be coming down the pike—the press shake up we may soon expect to see under a Trump administration. But like his cabinet appointments, this is replacing one terrible media model with another, from one extreme to the other end. A total mockery of independent and investigative journalists, if this is the direction for the next four years.
Whatever happen to old school Journalists being scrappy, anti-elite, stick-on-their-nose-where-they-shouldn't-be meddling truth-seekers? Sure, they may be obnoxious sometimes (maybe most of time), but that is the POINT of actualism journalism!
I think Obisanya has flagged some valid concerns here. Yet I also think he underestimates how degraded the regime media has become. Joe Rogan ain’t sitting in the press galley. That’s not his schtick. And although he’s not a credible journalist in the traditional sense, neither is anyone at the Wapo. A more realistic option would be the Daily Wore. You might say they’re partisan hacks, but so is virtually every single journalist sitting that room.
The thing that excites me about this proposal is the precise reason I support Trump - he’s bringing a hammer to the institutions and smashing their privileged pedestals. Giving access to the Free Press, Racket News and similar independent journalists is the best option IMO, but smashing the current system is a good enough start for me.