(Video source: Live Streaming News HD

via YouTube)

My thoughts on what the president elect should expect from the reporters covering him https://t.co/JMl3alloJ7



— Kyle Pope (@kylepope) January 17, 2017

NEW DELHI: Two days before being sworn in as arguably the most contentious US President ever, Donald Trump has been told in no uncertain terms by the American press corps that reporters - and not Trump - will decide how to cover news and serve readers best.Unarguably, Trump and the press corps haven't had a good relationship - his mocking a reporter who has a disability was just the tip of the iceberg. And the American press corps has acknowledged that it and the US President-elect don't get along."It will come as no surprise to you that we see the relationship as strained," say US journalists in an open letter published in the Columbia Journalism Review , an American magazine for professional journalists published by Columbia University But "strained" or not, the reporters also made it clear in the letter that they will be the ones calling the shots, as it were, not Trump."...while you have every right to decide your ground rules for engaging with the press, we have some, too. It is, after all, our airtime and column inches that you are seeking to influence. We, not you, decide how best to serve our readers, listeners, and viewers," the American press corps wrote, before laying out for Trump "a backgrounder on what to expect from us" over the next four years.The points the letter makes are as follows:* Access (to the US President) is preferable, but not critical.* Off the record and other ground rules are ours - not yours - to set.* We decide how much airtime to give your (US President's) spokespeople and surrogates.* We believe there is an objective truth, and we will hold you (Trump) to that.* We'll obsess over the details of (US) government.* We will set higher standards for ourselves than ever before.* We're going to work together (with the US administration).* We're playing the long game.About that last point, 'We're playing the long game', the journalists mince no words."You have forced us to rethink the most fundamental questions about who we are and what we are here for. For that we are most grateful," American journalists say in the letter.