The White House triggered a wave of backlash as it announced that no audio or video recordings were allowed during the latest coronavirus briefing.
Media outlets resorted to still photography and traditional paper and pen options to report on Tuesday’s press briefing, conducted by Vice President Mike Pence, on the latest developments on the health crisis. The Trump administration was slammed for seeming to go back on its promise to be “aggressively transparent” about its response to the outbreak.
We need transparency.
Instead we are getting this. https://t.co/0z6yXdodE0
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) March 3, 2020
CNN’s Jim Acosta and other journalists shared photos from the briefing and the rule for the day.
WH is allowing only still photos of this Coronavirus briefing. No audio or video permitted. Here is a photo of the VP as the briefing began. pic.twitter.com/kB05s6IRvO
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 3, 2020
Great question. WH says no audio or video. I asked why and I was told it is because they said no audio. https://t.co/YuEBBTkQcu
— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) March 3, 2020
No audio or video permitted at Pence WH coronavirus press conference, absolutely outrageous and will further signal the public that the Trump admin doesn’t have a handle on this @SenSchumer @SpeakerPelosi @KevinMcCarthyTV @senatemajldr https://t.co/flU4QD32Rn
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) March 3, 2020
Acosta reportedly asked Pence about the off-camera briefing and was told Wednesday’s news conference would be back on camera.
Asked by Jim Acosta why this briefing was not on camera or audio for Americans, @VP says “I expect we’ll be back on camera tomorrow.”
— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) March 3, 2020
“I asked Pence why the Coronavirus briefing is off-camera today. He said he believes the briefing will be back on cam tomorrow,” Acosta tweeted later.
The closest thing to an explanation we got as to why the Coronavirus briefing was off-camera with no-audio was when Pence said Trump was on camera a bunch today. https://t.co/8DYUTWvKer
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) March 3, 2020
Others joined the pile-on, blasting the Trump administration for the decision.
No audio or video? Authoritarian response to cover up the sheer incompetence! https://t.co/Hq7rdY1qfC
— Amy Siskind ?️? (@Amy_Siskind) March 3, 2020
Not how a functioning democracy works. https://t.co/Cg7xBadjXx
— David Rothschild (@DavMicRot) March 3, 2020
Real effort here to avoid producing images for television coverage of coronavirus https://t.co/MzsCWgTP7q
— Ben Smith (@benyt) March 3, 2020
Pete Souza, the Obama-era White House chief photographer, tweeted that he “can’t ever remember a time when a VP or POTUS spoke in the White House press briefing room and video/audio was prohibited.”
Walter Shaub, former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, thought it was “like they’re imploding.”
Will courtroom sketch artists replace photographers in the next briefing?
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) March 3, 2020
No audio or video allowed…for a virus that is spreading.
Jesus. https://t.co/po2E6AL2Y2
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) March 3, 2020
The outcry poured in from the mainstream media, despite the fact that off-camera briefings with reporters are not unusual and the White House was set to release a written transcript of Pence’s briefing later in the day.
“What we want to do is give real-time information in a steady pace and be fully transparent,” Pence, who was tasked with leading the administration’s response to the coronavirus threat, told reporters Tuesday. “I expect we’ll be back on camera tomorrow.”
A transcript from an off-camera briefing with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and others last week was later released. And the White House has already held three on-camera briefings in less than a week.
Pence shared during Tuesday’s remarks that there have been 77 cases of coronavirus in the U.S., spread across 13 states and there have been nine U.S. deaths related to the disease.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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