for decades the white house correspondent's association determined the pool but karoline leavitt stunned the media world by announcing the white house will now pick the pool. is this an outrage as many journalists are saying? the danger here is that white house officials will grant this privilege, mainly to friendly reporters who have sympathetic questions. the white house correspondent's association issued a statement saying in a free country leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps. but karoline leavitt made a point of saying legacy news outlets will remain part of the pool rotation, while opening the process to new media but what people don't get is that the big media companies pay most of the charges for flying on air force one and without them, smaller outlets probably can't afford the flights and by the way, how will conservatives feel if a democratic president hand picks the pool? i'm howard kurtz, and this is mediabuzz. howie: it was a shocking shouting match that derailed the possible agreement with ukraine as president trump kicked president zelenskyy out of the

this week in terms of media relations between the white house and the journalists who cover the white house, the white house correspondents association you're obviously a past president of that. do you want to talk through a little bit aboutjust what was announced this week by the press secretary, caroline leavitt? sure. so the white house correspondents association exists essentially to represent the interests of the white house press corps, try and regularly fail to forge a consensus for collective action by the press in relation to the white house, you know, advance first amendment principles and the like. but the day—to—dayjob is that negotiation for, you know, how many reporters can we get into this event to observe the president first—hand, do hisjob? moving forward, the white house pressl pool will be determined by the white house press team. what they said this week was that they would take control over who was in this pool. and they seized that control from the whca, from this journalist organisation, which had controlled it for decades, for basically as long as it it's a really significant blow to press freedoms so this is

white house. god bless the white house correspondents association. taken such a forceful stand publicly, collectively with the associated press. and on the day that the white house press secretary announced that it was the press secretary who would choose the reporters in the pool and not the other way around, she was not met with much consternation whatsoever, barely asked a question about it. i do think that the white house reporters need to stand up very vehemently, not just for themselves, but for access for all of their colleagues while they still have the opportunity to do so. but that room does not look like it used to. there are a lot of people, if you remember that first press conference, there are a lot of people who are bloggers who are very friendly to this administration, and a lot of the traditionals are not as as strong as they used to be. and that's the problem. and i was on the board once on the white house correspondents association board for three years when barack obama was president, and we fought with the president. you know, th

. >> um, you formerly were the president of the white house correspondents association and now, um, white house correspondents and reporters are finding this has become quite the challenge, right? i mean, especially now that the white house says it's going to manage the white house press pool in a different way. um, what what are the challenges that you and many correspondents are facing right now in this kind of tenor that is being sent from this white house? >> well, that that requires maybe a little sort of one on one explanation of what the white house press pool is and what it does and what the pool is, is it's a group of of journalists and news organizations that go in to smaller places like the oval office or fly on air force one when the whole press corps, which is hundreds of reporters, can't, can't fit. uh, so that's something that presidents of, you know, of both political parties have made use of when they're holding meetings with foreign leaders, uh, like with president zelenskyy last year, or, excuse me, last week. um, and and that's, that's what the pool is there for, is to

that the that the white house correspondents association comes with, where they're not going to makepre-approved questions. so every single person who sits in that seat is there to further the agenda of trump. they're not there to ask genuine questions on record or to hold him accountable. and now with her saying that they're going to pick the entire press pool, i mean, i can't tell what's worse when he wouldn't do press conferences at all, or this which simply just exists to prompt caroline into giving more propaganda, more talking points from the trump admin. just like that question with why doesn't zelensky wear a suit? that was a setup to try and reaffirm what their agenda was for the day? it was not a genuine question. and of all the people that she's invited into that room, so far they have all been far right loyalists of trump. there hasn't been one new media source that was there to genuinely ask a question or hold power accountable. >> which is why you don't ever hear them ask donald trump, hey emperor, you're not wearing any clothes. v spear under the desk news. thank you,

. >> since the white house effectively seized control of the press pool from the white house correspondents associationseen some of the most dependable and nonpartisan journalistic institutions, including the associated press and reuters, denied access to cover the covering the president. that includes this morning, when the ap was turned away from the press pool, traveling with the president in favor of reporters from far right conservative outlets real america's voice and the daily wire. the president of the white house correspondents association released a statement announcing that the group will no longer distribute pool reports from the white house's now hand-picked correspondents. the statement reads in part, quote, in a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps. end quote. the ability for journalists to ask tough questions of the president of the united states is vital to our democracy. but donald trump, of course, has consistently shown his disdain for tough questions from people he perceives to be unfriendly. i want to take you back to 2018, just after the midterm

white house strikes back at a.p., takes press pool coverage from reporter group. the article says for the first time in a century, the white house, not the independent white house correspondents associationl determine which news outlet are part of the press tour. as someone in media who has reported over 50 years, your thoughts? guest: the white house correspondents association is kind of an old organization around a long time. they hold dinners every year and usually have a left-wing comedian who comes in and attacks whatever republican president happens to be in office or support any democrat president in office. this is an old model. they get to pick the people in the pool, the press pool. i do not know why things should not change. i think the white house press secretary is doing a good thing by opening it up to alternative media as they call it because social media other ways of communicating have reduced the power and reach of the legacy media. i do not like the reason trump is doing it, because the a.p. will not call it the gulf of america. what is next? we are going to change the name of the united states to trump-land? host: explain what the press pool is, who is part of it, and

white house strikes back at a.p., takes press pool coverage from reporter group. the article says for the first time in a century, the white house, not the independent white house correspondents associationdetermine which news outlet are part of the press tour. as someone in media who has reported over 50 years, your thoughts? guest: the white house correspondents association is kind of an old organization around a long time. they hold dinners every year and usually have a left-wing comedian who comes in and attacks whatever republican president happens to be in office or support any democrat president in office. this is an old model. they get to pick the people in the pool, the press pool. i do not know why things should not change. i think the white house press secretary is doing a good thing by opening it up to alternative media as they call it because social media other ways of communicating have reduced the power and reach of the legacy media. i do not like the reason trump is doing it, because the a.p. will not call it the gulf of america. what is next? we are going to change the name of the united states to trump-land? host: explain what the press pool is, who is part of it, and w

the members of the white house press pool had been chosen on a rotating basis by the white house correspondents associationold. >> group representing the journalists on the white house beat. the responded to the change in a statement, writing in part, this move tears at the independence of a free press in the united states. it suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president in a free country. leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps. this comes as a federal judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order against the white house for denying the associated press full access in covering the administration, the ap was barred indefinitely from. >> the oval. >> office and air force one because of its refusal to change its style on the gulf of mexico after president trump renamed it the gulf of america. this isn't the first time the trump white house has attempted to limit press access. back in 2018, it temporarily suspended the press credentials of cnn's jim acosta for what the white house called behaving disrespectfully. a u.s. district judge later forced the wh

you remember the white house correspondents association, you write about how this move against, you know is playing out. how does it show authoritarianism and threaten all of our freedoms? could you just explain where you where you were going with your piece today? >> particularly as it. >> relates to the situation with. >> the white house press pool? i mean, this has been happening. >> i think it goes back to 1914. the press determines, you know, look, you can't have. >> the. >> entire press corps going into the oval office. there's just too many of us. >> but the way we've. >> done. >> it for generations is reporters would choose among themselves. >> there'd be a rotating pool as to who would go in to question the president. this is how reporters wanted it. but it's also how the white house wanted it, because. >> they didn't. >> want to be seen as picking favorites or deciding who was going to cover them. but of course, as with. >> everything else, this is all out. >> the window with donald trump, and they want to choose. exactly who's going to be questioning the president. and that's,

the job normally goes to the white house correspondents association.uestion, what could be wrong with that? trump has already barred the ap, reuters, huffpo and other outlets from covering the first cabinet meeting, and a number of journalists have lost their access to cover certain presidential events already. who is likely to cover these events right now? you guessed it right wing journalists. people who are friends with trump. conservative influencers, and so on. trump has been putting on this tough guy act since he first entered politics. but all of this represents more than just an erosion of our democracy. it exemplifies trump's fear and weakness. he's afraid of people who dare to ask questions of him, and of others who don't parrot his talking points. with me now, paola ramos, msnbc contributor whitney snyder, the new editor in chief at huffpost, and tara setmayer, co-founder and ceo of the seneca project and author of uncompromised with tara setmayer on substack. whitney, i'll start with you. earlier today, you saw again reporters, i believe, f

and i was on the board once on the white house correspondents association board for three years when barack obama was president, and we fought with the president. you know, there was a give and take, but i need to see this white house work with the association. they have not worked with them at the beginning when they said, we're going to change how we call on folks, they didn't talk to them about that, and they didn't talk to them about how they're going to do the pool. now, the white house needs to work with us and stop this. what is it? state one media type of atmosphere. it's got to change. >> this is what you call a slippery slope. thanks to both of you. it's great to see you both. april. ryan, always a pleasure to have you on the show. symone sanders, my colleague, the host of the weekend here on msnbc. thanks for staying late, symone. i know you've already had a long day. all right, another hour of velshi begins right now. good morning. it's saturday, march 1st. i'm ali velshi. president trump continues to publicly push the united states closer to russia at the expense of ukrai

white house decision. till block the aps access. also the makeup play take control. the correspondence association. this is a reordering.e to see how it shakes out. it will be the same kind of thing. tv network still doing the same job. i worry about setting precedents that changes things down the road and maybe they do not realize the implications of it. i think they are talking about more transparency. you cannot argue that this white house is not answering questions and opening up. i think he had 1100 questions in the first month. >> a power struggle. >> who controls access to the president. >> 100%. >> do you think media deserves us to have control over who gets sent to follow him around. >> we stood by the ap. we signed a letter of the network standing by, not blocking somebody for editorial decisions. i have stood up for cnn when they were not in a pool, standing up for fox. >> just making it explicit. it would have been different times, yeah. we set precedent. i think it's something you have to be concerned about. >> a bunch of these controversies always i think. in a way that the audience may not love. kind of m

associated press and reuters were excluded. that's kind of an interesting choice, right? and finally, we get this guy, brian glenn. he's a white house correspondentable channel who decided to jump in on the action. >> why don't you wear a suit? yeah. why don't you wear a suit? >> you're the highest. level in this country's office, and you refuse to wear a suit. >> just want to see if you do. >> own a suit. >> yeah, yeah. problems? >> a lot of americans. >> have. >> problems with you. >> not respecting. >> i didn't have such. >> a great point. i'm sure that guy would say the same thing to elon musk when he shows up the oval office looking like this. remnick's a pulitzer prize winning author and the editor in chief of the new yorker. he also serves as the washington post's moscow bureau chief. timothy snyder is a professor of history at yale university, author of the book on freedom, and they both join me now. there's a sort of strange david form content thing happening today, which was the content was the sort of embrace of putin, putin's theory of the war. putin's disinformation, putin's side basically in the conflict, and also a sort of putin es