White House Press Corps Airing Grievances

(Washington Post photo)

The White House Correspondents' Association typically keeps a low profile in its discussions with the White House press secretary over issues involving the news media. It tends not to wade into controversy, at least not in public.

But faced with the president's continued hostility and confronted by false official statements, The Washington Post reports the two candidates vying to become president of the group want to take a bolder - and more confrontational - approach.

"We as an organization need to be more concerned about getting lied to as a matter of course - and the American public getting lied to, through us - than about access," HuffPost correspondent S.V. Date wrote in an email touting his candidacy to the WHCA's 425 voting members.

He added, "I've been in this business more than three decades, and what's happening now is unprecedented. We are attacked on a near daily basis using Stalinist language. We are called corrupt and dishonest. We are given false information from staff who often know full well that it is false."

CBS News Radio reporter Steven Portnoy, 38, uses less explosive language in his pitch for support, but makes clear his disappointment that the White House hasn't held a press briefing in a record 93 days as of Wednesday.

The two journalists' statements suggest that the White House press corps has grown more frustrated - and is willing to say so publicly - after more than two years of disparagement by Trump and press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Date said he decided to run for a leadership position in the organization, best-known for its annual dinner, after reading special counsel Robert Mueller III's report of his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. He specifically cited the passage in which Mueller concluded that Sanders had lied in telling reporters at a briefing last year that Trump enjoyed wide support among FBI employees for his firing of Director James Comey.

Date, 55, said he isn't sure exactly what he would do to confront the administration, but in the wake of the Mueller report, he would have pushed for a collective statement from the WHCA expressing its disapproval.

The WHCA's current president, Olivier Knox of SiriusXM radio, had no comment when asked if the organization had had any discussions with the White House about false statements. Sanders did not respond to a request for comment.