UNRULY AND DISRUPTIVE JOURNALISTS AT WHITE HOUSE SHOULD BE REIGNED  IN.

THE KUHNS REPORT

LAS VEGAS - Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

The White House Press Corp needs revamping. It's out of control. CNN's Jim Acosta caused a disgusting scene in  a news conference with the President of the United States last week. He had an altercation with a presidential intern.  His hard press pass was eventually revoked by the White House. Rightly so for such bad behavior. He argued and challenged the president during the news conference. He sued to get his press pass back so he could attend press sessions. He won, and will be back in the White House press room now. The White House should have had specific policies and rules laid out for the so-called reporters years ago.

To prevent the unruly action  of the press acting out like a bunch of children in the future there should be a specific set of rules and guidelines laid out for the reporters to adhere to and abide by and if they violate the rules they should be removed and forbidden to return to the press room and the White House grounds.

It should be obvious that the press pool of reporters that are assigned to the White House should be grown up enough to conduct themselves with decorum and be courteous and polite and treat the office of the president with respect, especially when the president himself is conducting the news conference. That said, I have proposed for years that there should be rules and policy for reporters to adhere to.  Hopefully if the White House decides to set a policy and a set of rules for reporters  I would like to suggest that they include:

1. Reporters wait util they are called on by the press secretary or the president to offer their question for a  reply.

2. Reporters should be limited to "only one question" each and should be allowed follow up if  needed and then the microphone passed to another reporter who has been called on.. Following their question they should be seated until called upon again.

3.  The  reporters should be  instructed to allow their colleagues have an opportunity to ask a question.

4. If  any reporter  causes any disturbance or disruption they will be immediately removed from the  news briefing or news conference and White House grounds.

5. The rules and policy should state that the White House spokesman or the president can and will shut down the news session if the rules are violated.

Personally, I believe if these press briefing and conferences are turned into a circus by the reporters  the White House should limit the briefings and conferences  to  a minimum and  further I believe that the daily or weekly briefing should be conducted without cameras or video of any kind, including cell phones.. If that policy was enacted these showboating reporters would lose their platform to act out. 

Folks, the reporters job is to ask questions about the matter being discussed and reported by the press person at the podium or whatever subject matter the president is discussing. The reporters job is not  to argue and combat interns or "challenge" the president as Acosta said he wanted to do to president Trump.

Please note that there are about 49 seats for reporters in the press room. But there are thousand of journalists across this country that would love to ask  the president questions and will never get the chance because the seats are filed with the same journalists every day. I think that should change.
Other journalists should have the opportunity to be in the press room. Why? Because the reporters that have been there so long get lazy and take the privilege for granted. They start going off he rails and think the television camera in the press briefings is for them to act out and get a few minutes of fame.

So, I suggest that the White House immediately set out policy and rules for the White House press room and even post the rules on the entrance door of the press room. And it would also be helpful if the press secretary advise all of the reporters prior to the briefing being started each time that  decorum and respect is the policy and the reporters wait until they are called to offer up there question. And, that's my opinion. Make your own decisions. You decide.

BRADLEY W. KUHNS, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by email at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com