The White House Correspondents Association has booted a non-establishment journalist from its rotation of mostly left-wing reporters allowed to attend President Donald Trump’s daily coronavirus briefings.
Because of concerns about social distancing, the association recently decreed that only a certain number of White House correspondents may attend the briefings at any given time. And so to make the playing field fair, the association began rotating reporters.
Fast-forward to Wednesday, when One America News Network’s Chanel Rion was not on that day’s rotation, meaning she had no other choice but to sit out that day’s briefing.
But despite not being on the rotation, Rion showed up to Wednesday’s briefing anyway and reportedly stood in the back of the room, according to Paula Reid of CBS News:
OANN reporter once again standing in back of WH Briefing in defiance of social distancing requirements set in place by @WHCA. OANN is in the rotation of reporters who get to attend briefings but seem to think they get to play by different rules & put safety at risk. #COVIDー19 https://t.co/XhPjuib65I
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) April 1, 2020
Note how Reid complained about Rion standing in the back “again.” According to the Los Angeles Times, she first stood in the back of the room on Tuesday.
“Before Tuesday’s briefing began, a representative of the correspondents association asked Rion to leave the room because it wasn’t her day to attend, but she refused, claiming she was there ‘as a guest of Stephanie Grisham,’ the White House press secretary,” the paper has confirmed.
Grisham hasn’t yet confirmed whether she had indeed personally invited Rion to the briefing.
Regardless, when word of Rion’s second violation reached the WHCA, the association responded by removing OANN from its rotation of reporters allowed to attend the briefing.
WHCA Statement on Removing News Organization from News Briefing Seat Rotation pic.twitter.com/KL3XcPq7Rt
— WHCA (@whca) April 1, 2020
What’s unclear is how the WHCA learned of Rion standing in the back again. Some believe Reid was the “snitch” or “tattletale,” as they’re calling her, responsible for the association learning about OANN’s alleged impropriety.
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