CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller is famously fastidious with all presidential happenings. Ditto his Monday accounting of June press briefings: Five on camera, 10 off camera, three days with none at all. And now comes a development that's rather explicit in the headline of a piece by Celeste Katz of Mic: "Even Donald Trump's schedule has become a victim of a White House push against transparency."

Her opus reminds one that Trump already parts company with the Obama administration by not making public White House visitor logs, having Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travel without a press contingent, holding more briefings without cameras and even threatening to stop holding briefings.

"Some days, we'll have 'em; some days we won't," Press Secretary Sean Spicer said about cameras.

Meanwhile, the president of India was in Washington and did not do the traditional press conference with his American counterpart. So did one of the leaders refuse to talk to reporters jointly? Spicer wouldn't say. The Obama administration didn't have a glorious transparency record. But Trump is making them look like apostles of full disclosure.

For sure, there is a smidgen of press whining that can be a tactical mistake. The White House Correspondents’ Association keeps having meetings with "Sean" and "Sarah" (Huckabee Sanders) and others, finding solace in the most laughable small crumbs thrown their way. It tends to want to play nice, rather than tell a president's press flunkies (and him by default) to go screw themselves.

In this particular instance, it's all about a White House protecting a mercurial president who forces his spokespeople to frequently defend lies. The stated rationale of "Sean" and "Sarah" in private meetings with the press has largely to do with claims that the on-camera briefings have become overly theatrical. That's a not altogether inaccurate reference to some (not all) TV folks.

But the evolution of the briefing into a bit of a TV show obscures the larger reality here: This White House simply accelerates the unmistakable recent trend of administrations of both parties much preferring to operate in the dark.

Google gets whacked

"Google lost its biggest regulatory battle yet, getting a record 2.4 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) fine from European Union enforcers who say the search-engine giant skewed results in its favor to thwart smaller shopping search services." (Bloomberg)

Google will be able to scrape up the dough, since it's quarterly revenues are in the area of $25 billion.

A short stay at CNN

Eric Lichtblau was a respected veteran New York Times investigative reporter when he split in April to be Washington investigative editor at CNN (after collaborating on a long knockout analysis of FBI Director James Comey’s handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and President Trump). Now he's resigned, along with reporter Thomas Frank and a second investigative editor, Lex Haris, after a retracted story about alleged ties to a Russian investment fund of a Trump ally. (Poynter)

CNN.com ran a solid, if discreetly played, Brian Stelter story on CNN's swift action that included Haris' statement: "I've been with CNN since 2001, and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those principles wherever I go." (CNN)

Ideological kerfuffle at ESPN

Reporter Britt McHenry, "who was one of approximately 100 employees ESPN let go in April, suggested in a since-deleted Twitter comment Monday she knows why the Worldwide Leader sent her packing: She’s a conservative at what she apparently sees as a liberal network." (New York Post) "McHenry has been both vocal and closeted in her political views. The 31-year-old attended a GOP event last December, for example, and captured the night in a photo of her and Paul Ryan she posted to her Instagram account — which she subsequently deleted."