By Andrew Matsko

The ongoing debate over whether the president an ban certain news outlets from White House briefings raises major questions about press freedom, power, and the law.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of the press, but whether physical access to the White House briefing room is a guaranteed right or a privilage is stil debated.

However, courts have made it clear that the president can’t just kick out reporters simply because they don’t like their coverage. “As of now, the courts say that president Trump and their administration does not have the power to unilaterally remove just certain groups that they don’t like,” government teacher Mark Carreira said.

The point is that press access shouldn’t depend on whether the president likes a news group or not. Freedom of the press is a core constitutional protection: “I would lean more towards a constitutional right, not a constitutional privilege. We do have in the First Amendment freedom of the press, and I do think that that’s pretty obvious that this is related,” Carreira said.

Presidents trying to control the narrative is nothing new. Every administration tries to get favorable news coverage.

Historically, though, presidents usually tried to hide information rather than completely ban reporters from entering the room. “Certainly every president has tried to make journalists write in their favor. It’s usually more of a blocking of information than it is stopping people from actually coming in and reporting on live events happening or press briefings,” former journalist and district communications director Henry Conte said.

Social media and 24 hour news have made everything move much faster. News outlets are constantly racing to break stories first, which makes context and fact checking even more important. There’s a big difference between just repeating what an official said and actually checking if it’s true. “I think there’s a difference between reporters and journalists now, where reporters are just saying, ‘This is the thing that was said,’ and journalists are saying, ‘This is the thing that was said, this is why it’s not true, and here is all the content that is needed,'” Conte said.

Having an independent press pool at the White House is crucial for holding leaders acountable. When access gets cut off, it harms the public’s ability to get complete, reliable information about what the government is doing.