Jon Stewart has a question for the White House press corps: What if they stopped chasing Donald Trump?
On the Thursday’s episode of “The Weekly Show” podcast, Stewart was asked during the “Weekly Questions” audience segment whether White House reporters should simply ignore the president rather than continue pursuing him for quotes.
“Do you think the White House press corps should just ignore him instead of running after him like Natalie Harp?” podcast producer Brittany Mehmedovic asked Stewart.
“I do,” the host said. “I actually think that he only he needs them more than they need him.”
Stewart argued that the current system of presidential access has been structured to benefit Trump, rather than providing journalists with meaningful opportunities to hold him accountable. It’s also been a marked shift from the dynamic past presidents had with the press corps.
“The access to Trump is nothing because the system has been designed to his advantage,” he said. “You can’t ask follow-ups. You can’t do anything. It’s just designed for his own personal performance.”
As a result, Stewart questioned the public value of the White House press corps’ continued participation in the exchanges.
“So it really serves no purpose in terms of public value. It’s just another platform for him to spew,” he said.
He also acknowledged that there is an obvious reason news organizations continue to participate: Trump’s appearances generate an enormous amount of material for the media ecosystem.
“The reason why they like it is it’s a content factory,” he said. “It continues to generate content for all the other shows that exist and all the other aggregators.”
But Stewart argued that the constant access should not be confused with transparency.
“But as far as transparency, it’s not transparency,” he said. “It’s as my friend Mr. Bill O’Reilly would say: a pettifog machine. It’s pettifoggery, and it’s all nonsense.”
“And it would deny him the thing that he craves the most, which is to be the center of the universe, to be the center of the concentric circles,” Stewart concluded.
You can watch the full “Weekly Show” episode below.
