This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Swamp Notes — Trump vs the press’
Marc Filippino
President Donald Trump’s return to office has brought back his signature phrase in response to the news media — fake news. But this week, we saw the White House take things a step further. Trump will now be handpicking journalists for the White House press pool. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos wants the Washington Post’s opinion section to steer clear of political takes.
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This is Swamp Notes, the weekly podcast from the FT News Briefing, where we talk about all the things happening in US politics. I’m Marc Filippino, and this week we’re asking: Can news outlets keep doing their jobs in the current political climate? Here with me now to discuss is James Politi. He’s the FT’s Washington bureau chief. Hi, James.
James Politi
Hi, Marc. Nice to be with you.
Marc Filippino
Good to have you. And we’ve also got Chris Grimes, who covers the business of media for the FT. Hi, Chris.
Christopher Grimes
Hi there. How are you?
Marc Filippino
Good. James, let’s start with you. For those who may not know, what is the White House press pool?
James Politi
So the White House press pool is a system, really, that’s set up by the correspondents who cover the White House for various news organisations to cover presidents in intimate settings. So when they’re in the Oval Office, when they’re on Air Force One, when they’re travelling to events, and who gets to go into those intimate settings is decided by the White House Correspondents Association, which is a group of journalists from various media organisations.
Marc Filippino
Right, and they make sure that different outlets get a turn. So one week it’ll be Politico, one week it’ll be another news organisation. And whoever is that day’s pooler distributes the information that they get to other news outlets. So, then what was the announcement this week made by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt? And why does it matter?
James Politi
The announcement made by the White House press secretary was that they would have control over who participates in the White House press pool, so they will get to decide who will be in those intimate settings with the president. It’s really about the idea that the government gets to choose who has close access to the White House and to the president in particular. And if that means that it’s, you know, specific reporters with ideological affinity or just generally sort of friendliness to the president, there won’t be as independent as other voices, then I think that’s where the, you know, concern comes in.
Marc Filippino
Chris, this is definitely not the first thing Trump has done that’s raising eyebrows with the press. You co-wrote a feature about this a couple of weeks back. What else are we looking at?
Christopher Grimes
Right, so even before the inauguration, Trump was already feuding with the press. He went after ABC News. He sued ABC News over the interview that he did with George Stephanopoulos and ABC and its parent company, Walt Disney, settled with Trump on that. And then there’s also been this ongoing dispute with CBS over the interview that 60 Minutes did with Kamala Harris. Trump has called this the biggest scandal in broadcasting history for the way that the 60 Minutes editors edited a promo for the interview, which was pithier than the actual longer interview.
And I’ve been talking to a lot of people over the last few weeks about this, and really, a lot of these lawsuits are pretty legally flimsy, but that doesn’t really matter. The point is to exert pressure on the media, keep them on the back foot. And I think Richard Nixon did this kind of thing, too. Not with the lawsuits, necessarily, but he was constantly attacking the press. The difference now from back in the Watergate days, when there was all that antagonism, is that a lot of these media organisations are no longer as financially secure as they were back then. Whether it’s newspapers or traditional broadcast companies, they aren’t the big beasts that they were in previous eras of this, you know, antagonism with the White House.
Marc Filippino
It’s a different world, right? And speaking of which, we now live in a world where one of our biggest tech moguls owns a major national newspaper. I’m, of course, talking about Jeff Bezos, who is both the owner of Amazon and The Washington Post. And Bezos this week instructed the outlet to basically write opinion pieces on just two topics: personal liberties and free markets. Chris, why are people talking about this as a piece of political news and, you know, not just an editorial policy?
Christopher Grimes
Well, I think the reason people are jumping to that is that, you know, one of the things that Bezos said in his memo about this was that, you know, that there was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, you know, had some kind of a responsibility to give opinions on lots of things. But he said, you know, all that stuff belongs on the internet now. Now, most people would think it’s an abdication of responsibility in a way to say that the Washington Post’s opinion page doesn’t have any role in or doesn’t have any interest in giving opinions about politics in Washington, right. It’s the capital, the centre of power of the Western world, blah blah blah.
James Politi
I mean, I think what’s especially interesting about the, you know, the Washington Post’s shift is that their editorial page has traditionally been fairly centrist, reflecting the Washington establishment, which generally takes moderate positions, sort of on both sides of the political spectrum and on many issues. And now it seems to be focused on sort of the pet projects of the owner, Jeff Bezos, rather than sort of the consensus of Washington, which has been, of course, overthrown by Donald Trump.
Christopher Grimes
So and I guess the elephant in the room here that we didn’t really address is why there’s scepticism about this. And you have to go back to the first Trump term to answer that. Trump didn’t like the coverage he was getting in The Washington Post, he started labelling it as the Amazon Washington Post. He said that Bezos’s ownership of the Washington Post was, quote, protection against an antitrust suit, which would probably seem pretty threatening if you run a company the size of Amazon. Trump also said that Amazon was getting away with murder tax-wise, which I guess you would also interpret as something of a threat.
Amazon later sued, claiming that the company had been denied a $10bn defence contract for cloud computing services because of, quote, escalating and overt pressure from the president. So, you know, Amazon does have a lot of business with the government. And you know, they don’t want policies that would go against their corporate interests. So, this is the reason that a lot of people are interpreting Bezos as what feels like a change in position since around the election.
Marc Filippino
I wanna go back to Donald Trump and this administration for a second and mention a couple of other things that I’ve read about that seem to encroach on the news media. So, you have the Pentagon, it’s asked legacy news organisations to vacate the spaces they’ve had reserved there as part of their coverage. The new head of the Federal Communications Commission Brendan Carr has asked about pulling funding from public radio and public television. What does Trump’s relationship during this administration look like versus his first time around as president? And also, you know, compared to other presidents?
James Politi
So I think what’s different now, compared to the first Trump administration and compared to previous administrations, is that to a certain extent, you know, all presidents want to exert some control over the media that covers them, tries to make their case, tries to spin them in every possible way. You know, Trump traditionally has attacked the media. He did that during his first presidency. And there was an adversarial relationship with some outlets in particular. I think what’s different now is that there are measures being taken, for instance, to restrict or to take control over who has access to the pool or who has offices in places like the Pentagon or other agencies that they hadn’t done before. So to that extent, it looks like the main difference is that they’re taking actions and not just sort of verbally attacking the media.
Christopher Grimes
Yeah. So I agree, I think presidents always complain about their coverage, right? But I think Trump is exceeding the pressure. This has just been a bazooka of action in the second term. It feels like he’s just trying to keep constant pressure on the mainstream press to keep them on the back foot and to try to tame them.
Marc Filippino
Guys, what do you make of this week in journalism and media as journalists? I mean, does it impact about the way you think about your jobs or you know, how you think of, you know, the industry generally? How are you approaching the next four years?
James Politi
I mean, this is certainly a changed backdrop. Especially, you know, these changes about, you know, that are coming from the White House and the way that they give access to the president through the pool. But I think from a reporting point of view, nothing really, you know, changes for us. You know, we continue to report factually and independently and try to tell the story of this, you know, kind of extraordinary upheaval that Trump is bringing to, you know, American politics, the world’s society in the best way that we can. And we sort of press ahead with that.
Christopher Grimes
Yeah, I would agree with that . . . When James and I got into this business, we knew that it was a really competitive one, and it’s been as long as I’ve been at it, which is quite some time now. There’s been new media pressure. The business model has changed like 10 times. And I think James is absolutely right. It doesn’t change anything about how we do this. I guess the worry that I have is making sure that the type of journalism that we do, and so many other people do so well, which is fact-based, fact-checked work that seeks to represent two sides of a story — that gets crowded out in a media landscape that is increasingly its influencers and its people who make no bones about having a viewpoint and a strong viewpoint, often an affiliation.
Marc Filippino
All right, guys, I wanna thank you both for a really interesting conversation. Chris Grimes covers the business of media from Los Angeles for the FT. Thanks, Chris.
Christopher Grimes
Thank you.
Marc Filippino
And James Politi is the FT’s Washington bureau chief. Thank you so much, James.
James Politi
Thanks, Marc.
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Marc Filippino
This was Swamp Notes, the US politics show from the FT News Briefing. If you wanna sign up for the Swamp Notes newsletter, we’ve got a link to that in the show notes. Our show is mixed by Sam Giovinco and produced Katya Kumkova. Special thanks to Pierre Nicholson. Help this week came from Sonja Hutson. I’m your host, Marc Filippino. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz, and Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s global head of audio. Original music by Hannis Brown. Check back next week for more US political analysis from the Financial Times.