With today’s White House briefing being audio only, CNN decided to send its sketch artist, Bill Hennessy, to draw the proceedings. As CNN’s Brian Stelter reports:
He didn’t have his usual easel, but he stood in the back of the briefing room to document the scene.
Hennessy’s sketches aren’t exclusive to CNN; other news outlets may also use them.
AdvertisementSome conservative media voices dismissed it as a stunt, but CNN argued that the sketch session did serve a journalistic purpose, in the same way that courtroom sketches do.
CNN equated the briefing to a Supreme Court argument — an on-the-record event at which cameras are banned.
As we reported earlier today, the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Jeff Mason, met with White House press secretary Sean Spicer and deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders to express the concern about the shift to fewer on-camera briefings. Asked about it today, Spcier commented, “I think it’s great for us to come out here and have a substantive discussion about policies. I don’t think that the be all and end all is whether it’s on television or not.”