White House press briefings have been off-camera for weeks. Then a rogue reporter turned on Periscope.
The White House has banned live audio, cameras, and streams at press briefings consistently since the end of June, leaving some outlets hamstrung and raising questions about the administration's commitment to transparency. Wednesday's briefing with Sarah Huckabee Sanders was yet again an "off-camera" affair -- But one reporter has apparently had enough with the arbitrary media stifling.
The Washington Post first spotted The Pavlovic Today editor-in-chief Ksenija Pavlovic streaming audio of Sanders' briefing on her Twitter page.
Using Periscope, Pavlovic posted two streams, the first 17 minutes long, the second 31 minutes. Although the audio quality is poor, it's better than nothing.
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It's not clear what the blowback will be from the White House, which has been keeping the briefings off of its livestreams and releasing written transcripts hours later. We reached out to the press office for comment.
On Pavlovic's audio posts many thanked the reporter for making the White House's comments more accessible. She was commended for being courageous and gutsy for posting the off-limits audio.
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Watch for a possible upcoming media mutiny.
Topics Politics
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
