The White House press meetings are a form of access journalism. The press secretary gets a chance to inform the White House press corp about important issues. The press also gets a chance to raise questions. Sean Spicer was sent on a mission by his boss to tell the press corp that they did not accurately report the size of the crowd at his inauguration. He took no questions; he was there to scold them. That will be costly to The Donald. The White House press corp will not play that game. Instead of digging deeper into issues presented by the press secretary at these meetings they will find other ways to get the information they need to inform the public. Donald Trump will have to depend upon Fox News, and other sources of yellow journalism, to tell Trump's base what he wants them to believe. That will not silence the media. They are much stronger than media sources in nations without a strong history of democracy and freedom of the press. Trump will not be able to silence them as autocrats in other countries have done. He would have been better off if he had decided to use White House briefings to shape the news rather than to dictate it.
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