A conservative radio host and a reporter from White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s home state are among the first journalists to be granted so-called “Skype seats” for a Trump administration press briefing.
Spicer announced during Tuesday’s briefing that the “inaugural” recipients of the seats included WJW’s Natalie Herbick, conservative radio host Lars Larson, and WPRI reporter Kimberly Kalunian. The final seat went to Jeff Jobe, conservative founder and CEO of Jobe Publishing Inc., a consortium of south central Kentucky newspapers.
The Trump administration is the first to allow journalists to dial into the press briefing remotely. While Spicer has said this practice is intended to allow a “diverse group” of reporters outside the Beltway bubble to participate in briefings, it also reflects the degree to which the new administration is controlling which members of the press are able to ask them questions.
Larson is a longtime talkshow host based in Portland, Oregon who just last week recorded an episode devoted to the question of whether Trump will “ever be treated fair by the media.” A frequent Fox News guest, Larson has in the past earned headlines for accusing former President Jimmy Carter of being an “anti-Semite” and claiming that “race bias” caused black Americans to overwhelmingly support former President Barack Obama.
WPRI’s Kalunian conducted a friendly interview with Spicer, a Rhode Island native, shortly after he was named press secretary. The two discussed his early life in the Ocean State and how it felt to step into such an “iconic” role.
Spicer jokingly nodded at the interview in his Tuesday announcement, saying, “Not sure how she snuck in there.”
Spicer and Trump have made a point of prioritizing conservative-leaning journalists at press briefings and conferences. In his first-ever press conference last Monday, Spicer bucked the tradition of allowing the Associated Press, a non-partisan wire service, to ask the first question. Instead, the first question went to the New York Post and following two went to the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Trump refused to take questions from reporters from Buzzfeed News and CNN at his combative first press conference as president in January, citing coverage he deemed unfair to him. The President criticized both news sites for covering a document that the U.S. intelligence community presented him with that alleged Russian government agents had compromising, unverified personal information about him.
Correction: Kimberly Kalunian is a reporter for WPRI, not an anchor.
