THE HILL: Priebus floats shakeup for White House press corps.
Incoming White House chief of staff Reince Priebus on Wednesday floated a shakeup of how the West Wing will handle the White House press corps under Donald Trump.
Priebus raised the possibility of changing the format of the daily press briefing and rearranging the seating chart inside the James Brady Press Briefing Room.
“The traditions, while some of them are great, I think it’s time to revisit a lot of these things that have been done in the White House,” Priebus said during an interview with conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
“And I can assure you that change is going to happen,” he added.
Those moves could heighten tensions with members of the news media, who have sparred with Trump and his team over press access since the early days of the 2016 campaign.
Priebus’ comments come amid speculation that Trump is close to choosing his White House press secretary, who would be the administration’s public face and could have a say in any changes.
As I’ve said before, in the post-World War II era, the press has enjoyed certain institutional privileges based on two assumptions: (1) That it’s very powerful; and (2) That it will exercise that power responsibly, for the most part. Both assumptions have been proven false in this election cycle. Like many of the postwar institutional accommodations, this one will be renegotiated under Trump.