This is a big deal

There are any number of things I don't know about any number of things.  This I will admit. But with my nose, I can smell stink a mile away.

And it's getting pretty fishy around here.

Of the many, many disturbing things coming out of the current administration, and the many, many things I'd like to write about, a big one that we should really be paying attention to follows this headline:

"White House takes control of press pool that covers Trump." (BBC) 

I'm no expert, but from what I have learned, the *First Amendment mess we are currently in began when the White House refused the Associated Press access to covering Trump because the AP continued to use "Gulf of Mexico" in its reporting, rather than the name Trump arbitrarily uses, "Gulf of America."

Make no mistake, it doesn't matter if you are Republican or Democrat, this should concern all of us.

If like me, you didn't know how the press pool works, you should know that the White House Correspondents' Association legitimately controls the rotation of news media outlets who cover Trump (well, all presidents) and are allowed on Air Force One and in the Oval Office.

The Associated Press reported that Eugene Daniels, President of the White House Correspondents' Association, said, "In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps." 

Daniels also said that, "the organization [WHCA] consistently expands its membership and pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets."

It is clear that Trump's plan to "call those shots" has nothing to do with creating a fair rotation in the press pool, but, as he has so clearly done in his administration, create a circle of people and press around him who will only feed his narcissism and report only what he wants them to report.

This is a big deal. 

I, for one, do not want to have our press limited to one person's (Trump) perspective. It is the varied reporting with dissenting opinions that will keep us from becoming like those other countries (i.e. China & North Korea) whose public can only know what they are fed from their government led, one-sided reporting.

The censorship that Trump is setting up is problematic for all of us. It is a dangerous step, and is absolutely no way to get to the truth. 

Janet Cassidy
Email me at:  jmctm2@gmail.com

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*First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.