Press Access Quotes

You can never get your message across if you're always answering their [reporter's] questions.

President Obama was not friendly to the press, but the press was very friendly to President Obama.

I would never say, as a member of the press, that there should be fewer press briefings. The more access, the better, no matter who is there or what's going on.

Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.

My job is to be a spokesman - the spokesman, I suppose - for the President, for the White House, to do the daily briefings, to manage the press corps in terms of travel, day-to-day needs, access, interviews, all those issues.

I'm a reporter; you can't subpoena people to talk to you. If you write to them and try to call them on the phone and they don't answer or so forth, then take them unawares.

My job is to continue to work very hard, to make sure the American people understand who I am, what I believe in, what I'll fight for. It's why I have been so accessible to the press.

Every administration I remember has tried to control its message and manage contacts with the media. As a senior editor for more than a quarter century, I frequently received complaints from administrations of both parties about coverage they considered unfavorable, along with occasional and mostly empty threats to cut off access.

There is no law that guarantees press access to the White House. Communication was lessening during the Obama years. There was every reason to suspect that Trump was going to create an adversarial relationship and that people were going to be faced with the impossible dilemma between sort-of-complicity and access.

People don't realize there's a whole separate entrance to the White House for journalists.