Dear White House Correspondents:

I’m so sick of watching you get verbally abused, cut off, lied to and outmaneuvered by our Sociopath in Chief as he channels PT Barnum and Vince McMahon at the daily Covid-19 press briefings.

P. T. Barnum & Co. Circus Poster A portrait of P.T. Barnum on a Barnum and Company circus poster which advertises an exhibit featuring “Great Jumbo’s Skeleton.” (Photo by Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, center, held by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, prepares to have his hair cut off by Donald Trump, left, and Bobby Lashley, right, after Lashley defeated Umaga at Wrestlemania 23 at Ford Field in Detroit on April 1, 2007. (Carlos Osorio/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Given the current pandemic crisis and the rapid approach of November, Trump can no longer ignore you and rely only on the Fox News smoke machine to manipulate the national narrative. Your bargaining power to demand change may never be stronger than it is now.

It is time for you to flex your organizational and political muscle and demand an end to the daily personal abuse of correspondents. You won’t be able to stop Trump’s corrosive contempt for the truth but you must push back against it. A total boycott may not be practical but a few briefings where the only reporter in the room is Yamiche Alcindor or Jim Acosta, or anyone else on the growing list of those he has verbally abused would send a message.

The negotiations should start with a formal demand from the press corps for the following policies to be implemented immediately;

• When the President calls a reporter or a news outlet “fake news”, the White House will provide documentation of any reporting claimed to be “fake” or an apology, within 24 hours.
• If a factual statement by the President is questioned, a reporter may request a cabinet-level follow-up, to be referred to as a “CLF”. When a CLF is requested, the White House will provide documentation of the President’s factual claim within 24 hours or retract the statement.
• The microphones of reporters will not be cut off until they have finished their question and any follow-up.
• Reporters who have asked a question in good faith will not be personally attacked.

It is time to channel the late, revered, dean of the White House press corps, Helen Thomas, who once lashed out at Obama administration press controls and said;

“What the hell do they think we are — puppets?” “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

Helen Thomas obituary. Washington Post July 20, 2013 quoting her comment to CNSNews.Com

Helen Thomas in her front-row seat at a White House press briefing in 2008. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

The American people have never been more dependent on a free and independent fourth estate and it has never been more threatened. You need to act boldly now so that someday we don’t have to tell our grandchildren what it was like when journalists mattered.

Good luck and thank you very much.

Bob Salzman

NYC