McCabe: Press Pool’s Entitlement Gets a Reality Check

South Shore Press’ own Neil McCabe found himself at the center of a national media story when The New York Times used his photograph in its coverage of the White House press pool shakeup.

McCabe, the South Shore Press Washington correspondent, joked that Steve Bannon asked him why, out of everyone at the network, his picture wound up in the Times.

“I told him flat out, when you have to choose, you take the picture of the handsome guy,” McCabe said.

Behind the quip was a major shift in White House coverage. CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred by President Trump for their biased reporting, while Real America’s Voice stepped in to provide pool video when the major television networks declined to do so.

McCabe said the reaction exposed what he sees as a deep sense of entitlement among traditional White House reporters.

“It really was a shock to their system,” McCabe said. “They had to report from the sidewalk. That just completely threw their switch.”

McCabe described crowded press scrums where legacy reporters would push forward and simply declare, “Sorry, I’m pool.”

“They had an attitude and a sense of entitlement,” said McCabe, who also serves as a national political reporter for Real America’s Voice.

Now, McCabe said, the tables have turned.

“Real America’s Voice is saying, ‘We’re pool,’ to them,” he said. “And that hurts. That hurts them a lot.”

RAV made its pool footage available to other outlets while covering President Trump at a quality McCabe said surpassed that of the legacy media.

McCabe said some veteran reporters appeared to view their access as permanent.

“A lot of these reporters feel that they are like a fourth branch of the government,” he said. “They actually have a role running this country.”

For McCabe, the episode showed that alternative media could step into one of Washington’s most coveted assignments and perform the job when the traditional press corps would not.