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Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents' Association, said, "We’ve made clear that’s not our role.” | Getty WHCA president: White House asked organization to publicly criticize reporter

The White House asked the White House Correspondents' Association to single out a reporter and criticize an article, WHCA President Jeff Mason said Monday evening.

Mason’s comments were made during a WHCA town hall, where White House reporters pose questions to the WHCA board.

“The White House has come to ask me specifically, asking me to intervene or criticize a news organization or a reporter … to release a statement criticizing a reporter’s story,” Mason said, declining to elaborate on when the request was made or identify the article.

Mason said he declined to do so and that “we’ve made clear that’s not our role.”

Asked after the panel whether the request was due to a new White House team learning how the WHCA works, Mason said he wasn’t sure but that he didn’t think so and that the White House clearly thought it was the WHCA’s role to publicly chastise the reporter.

“I think it’s a reflection of frustration they have with the media, and they’ve used the relationship with the board sometimes to take that out, just as we have raised our concern and frustrations with them,” Mason said. “Part of that relationship has been drawing boundaries on what we do and don’t do.”

Mason said he didn’t “equivocate” and that he immediately turned down the White House when it asked him to release a statement.

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The WHCA represents the White House press corps. It organizes the rotating press pools, assigns seating in the White House briefing room, and acts as mediator and advocate for reporters with the White House press staff.

Asked about the matter, White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders referred questions to Mason and said she did not know what he was referring to.

