The White House news briefing, after emerging as a can’t-miss ritual of the early days of the Trump administration, has in recent weeks become shorter, less informative and less accessible, with some of the briefings declared off-limits to live broadcasting.

Those whose job it is to cover the White House are not pleased.

“We believe strongly that Americans should be able to watch and listen to senior government officials face questions from an independent news media,” the White House Correspondents’ Association president, Jeff Mason of Reuters, wrote in a memo to members on Friday. “We are not satisfied with the current state of play, and we will work hard to change it.”

Hours later, it was clear that any negotiations remained a work in progress.

For the third time this week, the White House prohibited news organizations from airing the briefing, which has traditionally been televised, and requested that audio recordings be withheld from broadcast until the question-and-answer session had concluded.

The major television networks acquiesced, though not without some grumbling. CNN, which has emerged as a particularly vocal critic of the no-broadcast rules, went so far as to send a courtroom sketch artist to the briefing room, who created an illustration of the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, addressing reporters.