You're Just Not Listening, Are You

You need to get over yourselves. The pseudo-drama of hiring a sketch artist to cover the White House press briefing is silly ... and old news.

This is a picture I drew 21 years ago, in the briefing room during the Clinton administration, of Mike McCurry briefing press not for camera. As a photographer, I had nothing much to do, so I drew the event in a notebook I carried with me at the time.

This was a mundane, daily briefing, and no one found it at all remarkable that it was not for camera. Most of the briefings back then, as I remember it, were not expected to be on camera. They were times for the writers to get all the messy, boring details from the press secretary, like who was where when, what the schedule was, what the party line was on this bill or that initiative. It was considered just day-to-day detail work.

Which is why I find it so amusing that everyone was so up in arms when the Trump White House made the regular briefing not for camera. It's not that big a deal. The briefings were never considered camera worthy until cable TV news came on the scene, and only then because someone thought to actually turn on the briefing room cameras during one of the regular press secretary briefings. It gained a cult, CSPAN-like following, but it generally wasn't recognized as some pillar of democracy.

Frankly, were I press secretary, I would start the administration with the general, daily briefing being off camera. What's the point? It just encourages little acts of performance art on both sides, and that's now exactly what we get instead of anyone learning anything.