Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA), has issued a strong pushback to Ian Sams from the White House Counsel’s Office.
Sams had sent a letter to the Association earlier this week, requesting that it assume the role of the policemen of the coverage on Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified material.
The letter requested the association to act as arbiters of news coverage, which was met with strong resistance from Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association.
The February 13th letter from White House counsel spokesman, Ian Sams, to the White House Correspondents’ Association is misdirected.
As a non-profit organization that advocates for its members in their efforts to cover the presidency, the WHCA does not, cannot and will not serve as a repository for the government’s views of what’s in the news.
The White House has far reach to make its positions known on the Hur report or any other matter.
The White House has the contact information for every bureau chief, editor and reporter covering the beat, and should reach out to them directly with any concerns about their editorial decision-making. In its 110-year history, our association has never controlled or policed the journalism that is published or broadcast by our members or their employers.
It is inappropriate for the White House to utilize internal pool distribution channels, primarily for logistics and the rapid sharing of need-to-know information, to disseminate generalized critiques of news coverage. We will not distribute them going forward.
The WHCA welcomes—and its members surely seek— further opportunities to ask questions of the president, the White House counsel, or the president’s personal attorney on this matter.
—Kelly O’Donnell, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association
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