Former White House correspondent, Minnesota native shares concerns about press freedom

NINA MOINI: Press freedom concerns are bubbling up at the White House. "The Associated Press" is suing the Trump administration after being barred from covering the Oval Office. And now, the White House said it will decide which news outlets can regularly cover President Donald Trump in what's known as the press pool. The decision, announced last week, breaks from tradition, where an independently chosen press pool follows the president and holds them accountable on behalf of the American public.

Pool reporters were previously determined by the White House Correspondents' Association, and the group has said this decision, quote, "tears at the independence of a free press." There's a lot going on in Washington now when it comes to press freedom. So joining us is someone who can speak to what that world is like. Ben Tracy is the former Senior White House Correspondent with CBS News and a St. Paul Native. Ben, thanks so much for taking the time for us today. I really appreciate you.

BEN TRACY: Nina, thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: So you are a St. Paul Native, and you worked at WCCO TV for a while. So did I. But we did not cross paths there. What was your journey like to becoming a White House correspondent?

BEN TRACY: Well, it's interesting. When I was in college, it's kind of the dream job I always had. I wanted to be a White House correspondent. I was actually a White House intern while I was in college in the press office. So I had seen it from that side of the coin. And then just my path was very interesting. At CBS News, I was based on the West Coast for a long time, covered any story under the sun. And then I was over in Asia for two years covering that. And then they asked me to go cover the White House. So I was there during President Trump's first term in office.

NINA MOINI: So a lot of people will watch the news conferences on TV, but people might not understand how the press pool works. Can you explain how it all works?

BEN TRACY: Yeah, so most people, when they're watching on television a briefing at the White House, you see that room, which actually is quite small in person, but they cram 50 to 80 people in there on any given day for a briefing by the press secretary, or during times when perhaps the president comes down and actually addresses the briefing room. So that's a lot of folks.

But there are many times during the day where the president is in much smaller spaces. So that could be the Oval Office. That could be Air Force One. That could be a smaller room in the White House. And then you have this subset of the press corps called the press pool. And they're the ones that go into those smaller spaces and are able to observe what is happening or ask the president questions, if he takes questions. So this is kind of a group of about a dozen or so rotating reporters who really are there to tell the rest of the press corps what the president is doing and saying at any given moment when the rest of the larger press corps can't be there.

NINA MOINI: And how would you, from your perspective, Ben, describe what press access and press freedom was like during that first Trump term that you covered?

BEN TRACY: Access was actually quite good. There are obviously some concerns sometimes about the interactions between President Trump and journalists and some of the information that comes out of the White House. But in terms of his availability to journalists, it was a lot. And we're already seeing that again with his second term, where he is on the regular almost every day, fielding dozens and dozens of questions during these sessions in the Oval Office, or as he's out on the South Lawn, going to Marine One to fly somewhere.

So access to President Trump actually has been quite good, compared to, for instance, President Biden, where a lot of journalists really did complain that he just did not interact with journalists enough. So access has never really been the issue. Now, there are these questions, though, about who is getting access and how the White House is going to determine that.

NINA MOINI: Access is one thing, but holding people accountable is a different part of the job and a really integral one. I am curious, how do you think, just like operationally, this impacts how reporters are able to do their jobs there?

BEN TRACY: Well, I think there's a couple of concerns. The way that the White House press pool would work, is that because it was this rotation amongst a lot of the media organizations, you were constantly kind of changing the people who are interacting with the president. And I will say on the days when you are the press pooler, for instance, when I was there, I would then be representing all of the broadcast television networks.

So I would go into the Oval Office, and I would take notes on my phone, and you call them pool notes. And you're just constantly sending out, this is what the president just said, this is what just happened, because, for instance, somebody from CNN might be on the lawn reporting live, and they need to know what's happening. So my job, on those days where I was the pooler, was not to represent CBS News. It was to represent all of my colleagues in television news that were covering the White House.

So the concern now is that if they're kind of picking and choosing which outlets and which reporters are able to be a part of the pool, you could see a time where the White House is picking people based on how they think the coverage may be. So perhaps they think they're going to get more sympathetic or favorable coverage if they allow in certain media outlets.

They can then punish other media outlets, as we're seeing with "The Associated Press." They don't like the fact that they're not referring to it solely as the Gulf of America. Therefore, they're not allowing them to be in these spaces where the press pool would be. So there are some concerns as to what that means for the coverage. And can the rest of the reporters covering the White House trust the information that's coming out of there, if it's being relayed at times by what you might consider more partisan media outlets?

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Thank you for doing such a great job of explaining how all that works because I do think it's time for journalists to really explain our jobs, and show our work. And here's how it works. And it's kind of a part of media literacy altogether. But that relationship does require a lot of trust between the various reporters from the various access points. So it's pretty fascinating. And we do the same, locally, if it's like a court case, and only one person can be in the courtroom. So there is that trust that happens there. I'm curious, Ben, what you're hearing from your colleagues who are still there, who are covering this administration this time around. What are they saying? What are they feeling?

BEN TRACY: There are some real concerns in terms of how, especially, this press pool situation may play out. And really, we saw it on Friday during that really historic and kind of mind-boggling exchange between President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, where one of the reporters who was in the room from an outlet called Real America's Voice, which is kind of a pro-Trump, right wing media outlet, he used his time to ask Zelenskyy, do you own a suit? And said, a lot of Americans have a problem with you not respecting the dignity of the office because of the way you're dressed. That's not something you would typically hear a traditional journalist ask or say. It's much more commentary than it is journalism. So I think the fear is that you might see more of that down the road.

Now, I will say, in defense of the White House, so far, they still are including traditional media outlets. CNN was in the room that day. I know my colleague, my former colleagues at CBS News, have still been in the rotation. But there are some also practical things going forward in terms of when you travel with President Trump or any president on Air Force One as a representative of the media, it's not taxpayers that are paying for you to be on that plane. It's your media organization.

So when I was on Air Force One, CBS News would have to pay for that. They'd have to pay for my meal. So there are some questions going forward if you don't have some of these what people might call traditional or legacy media outlets in that press pool, who's going to be able to afford to do that and provide that coverage, so we do know what the president is saying and doing pretty much at any given moment?

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and I think for his part, President Zelenskyy had said that he dresses sort of in military style garb, sort of in solidarity charity with the people fighting over there. But your point about just different media outlets being involved, we learned in the 2024 election cycle, I think, that influencers and there are so many different places that people are getting their news. And maybe we should include these less mainstream media outlets and journalists into the mainstream and get them in the rooms and get them in the Oval Office. What do you think about that?

BEN TRACY: It's hard. I think there's real value to that in terms of hearing some different voices, some different perspectives. I think we all know from this last election cycle that podcasters played probably a bigger role than what we would consider traditional media journalists. So I think the instinct to broaden the aperture and say perhaps we should have some other people here asking questions, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think the question is once you start picking and choosing based on the coverage you want, or if you disagree with someone's coverage, you're now kind of blackballing them from that list of reporters who can be in those spaces, I think that's where it becomes more problematic.

NINA MOINI: Yeah and so for you, Ben, what is next for you? Do you miss being at the White House right now? Or are you kind of moving on?

BEN TRACY: Oh, it's so hard. There are days where, yes, you say, oh, my, it's kind of a constant stream of news coming out of there. And as a journalist, you certainly want to be in those kinds of environments. But I also felt like the time I spent there felt like about 10 years in dog years because there was so much going on that I'm kind of OK watching it from a distance. So it's been nice. The last couple of years, I've been covering climate change and the environment. And I really am passionate about that. So I've been excited to do some of that work as well.

NINA MOINI: Wonderful. Ben Tracy, thank you so much for stopping by and breaking this all down for us. It really means a lot. Thank you.

BEN TRACY: Thank you for having me.

NINA MOINI: That was Ben Tracy, the former Senior White House National Correspondent for CBS News and a St. Paul native.