For Trump’s White House, “New Media” means MAGA allies

On January 28th, in her first official briefing as White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt declared the Brady Briefing Room open “to new media voices who produce news-related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room. We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House.”

Since then, she and her team have touted the unprecedented access that they have given to nontraditional press, and have boasted that over 12,000 people have applied to occupy what they call the “new media” seat in the briefing room. 

The Wall Street Journal, reporting on the move, highlighted creators and independent journalists of all political persuasions who applied for the opportunity to cover the White House in this new way. Among them were pro-Democracy social media stars Aaron Parnas and Harry Sisson, who have millions of followers on TikTok.  

But a closer look at who has been selected for the “new media” seat shows that Sisson and Parnas may not be making an appearance in the briefing room any time soon. Leavitt’s guest list so far reflects a clear bias for conservative voices and supporters of the MAGA agenda:

During her first briefing, Leavitt selected Axios founder Mike Allen and Breitbart’s Matt Boyle to be featured. While Allen is widely respected in the Washington press corps and is seen as a non-partisan voice, Boyle has been at the very conservative Breitbart News for over a decade and vocally supports the administration’s agenda.  

John Ashbrook, a Republican campaign consultant who hosts a popular conservative podcast, took the seat on January 31. He threw Leavitt a softball, asking, "do you think the media is out of touch with Americans demanding action on our border crisis?" Ashbrook’s placement as a journalist in the briefing room is notable, since his company played a not insignificant role in helping elect the President last year. Last cycle, Ashbrook’s firm, Cavalry LLC, received at least $90,000 from Preserve America, a leading pro-Trump super PAC. Cavalry has also done extensive consulting work for Republican U.S. Senate campaigns. 

Ashbrook was followed by right-wing podcaster Sage Steele on February 5th, who participated in the administration’s rollout of a new anti-trans policy. Steele is a former ESPN host who was canceled after criticizing vaccine mandates and questioning Barack Obama’s racial identity. Steele’s podcast, The Sage Steele Show, features a rotating guest list of MAGA world figures. Just in the past year, she’s interviewed Charlie Kirk, RFK Jr., Lara Trump, John McEntee, Maria Bartiromo, Kathy Barnette, Nicole Shanahan, Dave Portnoy, and Glenn Beck. 

Last week, the seat featured Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of the conservative video platform Rumble. Pavlovski’s company is hardly independent of the Trump political and business empires - for several years Rumble has provided backend support to Trump’s Truth Social platform via a major deal inked with Trump Media and Technology Group. As recently as December 2024, Rumble employed Kimberly Guilfoyle, the President’s nominee for Ambassador to Greece and the ex-fiance of Donald Trump Jr. Just days before Pavlovski was given the seat of honor in the briefing room, Rumble’s General Counsel, Michael Ellis, was appointed by Trump to be Deputy Director of the CIA. 

Today, the guest of honor was John Stoll, the new “Head of News” at Elon Musk’s X. Stoll is a former Wall Street Journal editor who has recently shared or reposted content critical of Democrats, supportive of anti-trans voices, and favorable to the Trump administration. As his current employer (Musk) holds a prominent role in Trump’s government, it is hard to imagine Stoll would be willing to ask any question seen as remotely adversarial. 

Beyond the “new media seat,” some journalists have noticed a trend emerging in Leavitt’s press briefings. The 27-year-old Press Secretary has, at times, prioritized calling on right-wing media journalists over mainstream correspondents. According to The Guardian, “At least 10 of the 18 reporters” Leavitt called on during her briefing on February 12th “work for partisan rightwing outlets.” 

Another example of this happened on Wednesday, when Leavitt and her team hosted a “Local Media Row” at the White House to grant a select group of local radio and television stations interviews with top administration officials. 

In a video from the event, which was held next door to the West Wing in the Executive Office Building, Leavitt claimed that this was "another example of the most transparent and accessible White House in history, thanks to President Trump.” According to conservative site The Blaze, which was granted an “exclusive” to cover the event, “The local media row hosted four national radio outlets, 11 local radio stations from 11 different states, and two local TV affiliates…a total of 73 radio interviews were held, reaching roughly 60 million viewers and listeners across America.”

I emailed the White House press team to request a full list of participants, and have not heard back. But a quick search online shows that the event was attended heavily, if not exclusively, by conservative personalities and right-wing talk radio hosts vocally supportive of the administration. Local pro-Trump broadcasters Simon Conway, Chris Stigall, Dan O’Donnell, Dominic Carter, James Flippin, and Rich Zeoli all shared posts touting their attendance at the event. 

Partnering with and prioritizing access for conservative media is a very smart strategy for the White House to execute. Partisan media is incredibly powerful and influential on the Right and can be helpful in accomplishing the administration’s communications goals. From promoting COVID vaccination campaigns to holiday parties and hyping the State of the Union address, Leavitt’s predecessors in the Biden administration also regularly engaged with politically friendly creators in new and interesting ways. 

However, Leavitt selectively engaging with MAGA media friends under the guise of being welcoming to all new media outlets is a bit misleading - and will no doubt cause more than a few eye rolls in Washington and beyond. 

Republicans confirm far-right children’s book author as FBI Director

This afternoon, Republicans in the United States Senate unanimously confirmed Kash Patel, a far-right children's book author, as the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

His presence at the top of the agency is a shocking illustration of the cowardice of Senate Republicans and the hopelessness of Senate Democrats. He is expected to pursue an agenda of retribution against President Trump’s political enemies. 

Since his involvement in the first Trump administration, Patel filled his schedule by doing questionable business deals, hawking KA$H merchandise, and authoring a children’s book called The Plot Against The King. The book, which features characters like “Hillary Queenton” and “Keeper Komey,” has a GoodReads rating of just 2.6 stars. 

More things you should read

• Podcaster Joe Rogan was in the news a lot this week. Newsweek reported that he was knocked off the top of the podcast charts by Blue MAGA bros MeidasTouch, who are receiving more than 50 million views or downloads on their podcast each month. However, the majority of those views came from YouTube instead of Apple or Spotify, where Rogan still remains more dominant. Rogan’s fans weren’t happy about their favorite pod being displaced though, and according to POLITICO, they also may not be enjoying his infatuation with Elon Musk. 

• Project C, an excellent newsletter (also on beehiiv!) that you should subscribe to, published an interesting breakdown of what they call the “evolving journalism landscape.”

One last thing: Stephen A. Smith goes off

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