Muzzle Toff

Watchdogs locked in a kennel are of no value when danger approaches.

  The White House press room may be shut down and reporters sent across the street to new quarters in a separate building.
   Reince Priebus, spokesman for the incoming President, defended the plan as a way to provide more access to more journalists in larger facilities.
   Assuming, of course, that government officials also go across the street and are accessible to the press corps. Otherwise, there will be no reporters in the White House. This not only gives tighter control over reporters to the Trump team, but also tightens control over the President's own staff.
   If there is no contact, there can be no leaks.
   So who's going to be in charge of the assembled press as they are banished to another room in a separate building? Any attempt to put a single individual as the source of all information to all journalists cannot succeed.
   The strategy of media control is not new for Donald Trump and crew. During the campaign, the Trump team routinely corralled reporters in a separate area so they would have minimal contact with supporters or potential dissidents in the crowd. Moreover, it gave the candidate a larger target at which to throw his diatribes.
   Presidents have regularly tried to muzzle the journalistic watchdogs so they could not raise a howl when government staff crossed the boundaries of propriety. But so far, reporters have not been banished from the hallways of the White House and traditional sources of information.
   Not yet.
   Closing the White House press room and shunting reporters across the street is the first step toward greater control of the media.
   However, as every journalist knows, there are ways. Reliable sources are a reporter's most important asset, to be protected even at the cost of going to prison rather than reveal a source.
   And while many states have laws protecting journalists who refuse to reveal a confidential source, there is no similar federal statute. Expect the Trump administration to appoint someone to take charge of muzzling the press.