The White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) is accusing CNN of turning their back on the press by denying access to a pool reporter during Thursday’s presidential debate. The organization wrote in a letter that it has “advocated for the inclusion of our White House travel pool inside the studio for the presidential debate” in various ways, including reaching out to the White House and campaigns directly.
The WHCA said it is “deeply concerned” that CNN rejected its repeated requests to include the WH travel pool inside the studio during the highly anticipated event. The full statement reads.
We are deeply concerned that CNN has rejected our repeated requests to include the White House travel pool inside the studio for the presidential debate tomorrow night. Through conversation and advocacy, we urged CNN to grant access to at least one print poll reporter for the duration of the debate. This is not sufficient and diminishes a core principle of presidential coverage: independent observation and reporting by professional journalists.
The White House travel pool has a duty to document, report and witness the president’s events and his movements on behalf of the American people. The WHCA advocates for access to these events and this movement so that we may accurately and independently report on them. We urge CNN to reconsider its plan and welcome the White House travel pool print representative to witness the debate in full for the sake of the news cycle, history and most importantly, for the American people.