On Monday morning, Jerome Corsi, Washington bureau chief for Alex Jones’ right-wing Infowars conspiracy website, tweeted that he has White House press credentials.
Jerome Corsi, Washington Bureau Chief, https://t.co/8yxnbeoqQC. We have WH PRESS CREDENTIALS. I'm in WH May 22, 2017 pic.twitter.com/ln9aE6nNOB
— Jerome Corsi (@jerome_corsi) May 22, 2017
Although a senior reporter for the Weekly Standard and others claimed that Corsi’s credentials are temporary, Infowars published a story on Monday claiming that in “an epic blow to the mainstream media’s control of the narrative, Infowars has officially received White House Press Credentials that will allow Washington Bureau Chief Jerome Corsi to attend White House press briefings.”
“Alex Jones may even attend some White House press briefings in person,” it adds. Earlier this month, Jones claimed on a broadcast that Infowars’ request for a regular White House press pass was “pending.” Corsi tweeted later Monday afternoon that Infowars is indeed on track to receive permanent credentials.
MSM insane as Infowars gets White House Press Credentials. WH issues weekly credentials for 3 months to start https://t.co/jwQfnUb45T
— Jerome Corsi (@jerome_corsi) May 22, 2017
Corsi is one of America’s most prominent “birthers” — the racist conspiracy theory about Barack Obama’s birth certificate that brought Donald Trump to political prominence in 2011. That same year, Corsi wrote a book entitled, “Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible To Be President.” In 2004, Corsi co-authored a book baselessly smearing then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for his military service, which included two Purple Hearts, a Silver Star Medal, and a Bronze Star.
In January, Corsi announced that he was leaving another fringe website — WorldNetDaily — for Infowars, a site that relentlessly spread the conspiracy theory that the 2012 school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax. Trump reportedly consulted with Corsi when pushing the notion that Obama’s birth certificate was fake.
In recent days, Corsi — like Sean Hannity and Newt Gingrich — has been pushing the conspiracy theory that a former DNC staffer was murdered because he was responsible for sending DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
Corsi is also a 9/11 truther. (https://t.co/j51qcleeTi) And lately has been leaning heavily into the Seth Rich conspiracy. pic.twitter.com/0n2uF8qsuX
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) May 22, 2017
News that Infowars will be participating in White House press briefings startled everybody from conservative pollster Frank Luntz — who tweeted that “[t]he media outlet that insists Sandy Hook was a hoax depicted by paid actors now has White House press creds” — to a senator who represents Sandy Hook, Chris Murphy (D-CT).
I want to throw up. @POTUS has granted legitimacy to a group that believes Sandy Hook was a hoax carried out by paid actors. https://t.co/uMBuIqNMUb
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) May 22, 2017
Corsi wouldn’t be the first right-wing conspiracy theorist the Trump administration has welcomed to the White House. Leading Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich has recently attended White House press briefings, where he was photographed making a white nationalist hand signal from behind the press podium. (Jones recently apologized for promoting Pizzagate on his website and broadcasts and characterized himself as a “performance artist” instead of a journalist.)
It is beyond ironic that the same WH that derides mainstream outlets as "fake news" regularly credentials conspiracy-peddling websites.
— Matthew Nussbaum (@MatthewNussbaum) May 22, 2017
In February, Gateway Pundit — a far-right conspiracy site specialized last year in spreading conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health and isn’t above citing “Reddit users” as sources in stories — announced it too had received White House credentials.
It’s unclear how many Trump White House press briefings Corsi and company will be able to cover, however. After Trump undercut the line his spokespeople had been pushing for days about the firing of FBI Director James Comey, Trump tweeted that “it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy” and threatened to end the tradition of White House briefings.
…Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
The White House press briefings during the era of Press Secretary Sean Spicer have consistency generated negative headlines for the administration. Spicer’s first appearance before the media consisted of him attacking journalists for accurately reporting that Trump’s inauguration was attended by a relatively small crowd. He’s also created controversy by favorably comparing Hitler’s chemical weapons usage with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and admonishing the Washington bureau chief for the American Urban Radio Network to stop shaking her head.