President Trump is adding ‘Skype seats’ to his White House press room

 Trump White House is adding Skype seats
to its press room. During today’s press
briefing by press secretary Sean Spicer, it
was announced that “beginning later this
week,” there will be four Skype systems in the
briefing room next to the usual White House
press corps.
“This will open up the briefing to journalists
who live beyond 50 miles of the Washington,
DC area and to organizations that don’t
currently have a day pass,” Spicer said. “As
always, any organization is welcome to apply
for a day pass. But we’re excited to open up
into the field and fold here a diverse group of
journalists from around the country who may
not have the convenience or funding to travel
to Washington. I think this can benefit us all
by giving a platform to voices that are not
necessarily based here in the beltway.”
Spicer gave no additional details on exactly
which journalists or news organizations will be
given access to the so-called Skype seats, nor
how the integration into the press room will
work. The Verge has reached out to Microsoft
for comment.
The announcement comes amid early tensions
between the new Trump administration and
the press corps in recent days following
disagreements over the attendance at
Trump’s Friday inauguration. “I don’t think
there’s any question that it was the largest
watched inauguration ever,” Spicer repeated
again today after blasting the press for
reporting underwhelming crowd sizes in a
Saturday statement. “As you know, we’re all
about big viewerships and large audiences
here,” said Spicer as the lead-in to
announcing the Skype seats.
”We want to have a healthy and open dialogue
with the press corps. and the American
people,” he followed. On Sunday, an exchange
between NBC’s Chuck Todd and Trump
advisor Kellyanne Conway on Meet The Press
was widely mocked across social media when
Conway suggested Trump’s side was
presenting “alternative facts” to make its
case.
Spicer pointed numerous times to an
erroneous (and quickly corrected) report that
Trump had removed a bust of Martin Luther
King Jr from the Oval Office as evidence of
the media’s rush to publish anti-Trump news.
“Where’s the apology?” he asked, despite
acknowledging a public apology days earlier.
“The default narrative is always negative, and
it’s demoralizing.” Spicer suggested he was
trying to reset the relationship between
Trump’s White House and the press on
Monday, telling the reporters present “I’m
going to stay here as long as you want.”