WASHINGTON – Dale Jackson describes himself as several things – a radio personality, a TV talk-show host, “an entertainer” – but “reporter” isn’t on his list. In fact, it may be the last thing he wants to be known as. Jackson calls the journalists who cover the president “a bunch of partisan Democrats.”
Yet there he was – virtually – among a roomful of reporters, piping in from Athens, Ala., to question White House press secretary Sean Spicer during Spicer’s daily briefing for the news media in February. Jackson took a quick jab at the assembled journalists (“the elite media bubble,” as he phrased it) before launching into a question about when President Donald Trump planned to end two Obama-era immigration programs.
The morning host at Athens radio station WVNN is among the unusual cast of characters who have joined the daily briefings. Using Skype, the video-call app, the White House has extended the daily question-and-answer sessions for the first time to people in far-flung locales. The innovation, Spicer said in an interview, “has been very successful bringing in additional reporters beyond the Beltway.”
Except that many of the people who have occupied the “Skype seat” aren’t reporters at all.
Like Jackson, many have been conservative talk-show hosts who are receptive to, or openly cheering for, Trump’s agenda. Since Spicer initiated the calls, he has taken questions from the likes of nationally syndicated radio personalities Lars Larson and Michael Medved. Questions have also come from regional hosts such as Bryan Crabtree of Atlanta, Adriana Cohen of Boston, Joyce Kaufman of Miami and Steve Gruber of Lansing, Mich.
More:
http://www.denverpost.com/2017/04/11/white-house-press-briefings-skype/The whining from the "real press" is funny, at least. In a depressing sort of way.
