White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said journalists’ use of anonymous sources is a “big disservice to the American people” and that the White House is trying to work “more on the record.”
During a lukewarm panel discussion between Sanders and members of the White House Correspondents Association at George Washington University Monday night, the press secretary and prominent members of the media spoke candidly about their relationship, which Sanders said will always have “tension because we have very different jobs to do.” She railed against the hostility that she says the media aims at President Donald Trump’s administration and the way journalists ask questions.
“So often I feel like, certainly, the question comes from a place of, like, an accusation instead of just asking, looking for information. It’s more like, ‘You’re a horrible person, please tell us why,’” she said. “I do think that the tone matters.”
Since Sanders took over as White House press secretary, she said she’s been working to be more transparent and offer more “on the record” opportunities for reporters.
“That’s something that we’ve tried, I think, to do with some success over the last couple of months, is working more to do on the record, certainly on camera briefings to allow that sense of access and sense of transparency,” she said. “But I think that goes both ways.”
She said her press shop is “constantly having to compete with anonymous sources,” which aren’t “credible.”
“It’s a big disservice to the American people that there (isn’t) more credible sourcing,” she said. “I do think that the anonymous sourcing is a really big problem and something that as much as we can move away from we should.”
Watch the full discussion below:
