White House Rules For Reporters

In his silly war against enemy-of-the-people Jim Acosta, Trump was successfully sued by CNN and promptly backed down.  Acosta's White House press pass was fully restored.

In an equally silly yet dictatorial attempt to establish "new rules" for the White House press corps, Sarah Fuckabee Sanders issued a letter informing reporters that henceforth they may ask only "a single question" at White House press conferences, with perhaps a follow-up question if they're really, really nice about it.

The letter gave a few examples of courteous, allowable questions:

• "How are you today, Sarah?"  (Allowable follow-up:  "And is the president feeling well?")

• "Many people are saying Donald Trump is the greatest world leader of all time.  Would you agree?"  (Allowable follow-up:  "So would second place go to Vladimir Putin or Mohammad Bin Salman?")

• "Mar-a-Lago club members have often heard the president tell of driving a golf ball well over 350 yards.  Do you believe the president is capable of a 400 yard drive?"  (Allowable follow-up:  "Is he equally skilled around the greens?") 

The letter also suggested a number of topics to be avoided, under penalty of banishment, permanent loss of press pass, and a terrible taunting from Trump.  Verboten topics include:  Robert Mueller, Russia, Saudi Arabia, tax returns, family business, Ivanka, global warming, voting rights, racism, the First Amendment and the rights of a free press, Mathew Whitaker, boofing, etc., etc. 

To their credit, the White House Correspondents Association issued statement in which they said they do not agree with these restrictions on press freedom, they played no role in developing them, and the chicken-shit administration can basically go piss up a rope. 

Which got me thinking:  What if they gave a press conference and no one came?  What if, as a one-time protest, all the White House reporters secretly agreed to skip Sister Sarah's next exercise in disinformation?  What if there was just video showing her standing google-eyed at the podium in a completely empty White House briefing room?  Or maybe the correspondents should walk out en masse as she walks in.

And in a related matter, the afraid-of-the-press administration announced that there will be no more comedians at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.  Because Trump is a humorless coward who can't take a joke, a nice little tradition dies.  A pity.