A press gaggle (as distinct from a

press conference A press conference or news conference is a media event in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions. Press conferences are often held by politicians, corporations, non-governmental organ ...

or press briefing) is an informal briefing by the White House Press Secretary which (as used by press secretaries for the George W. Bush administration) is on the record, but disallows

videography Videography is the process of capturing moving images on electronic media (e.g., videotape, direct to disk recording, or solid state storage) and even streaming media. The term includes methods of video production and post-production. It used ...

. The term can refer to the informal interactions between the press and the press secretary that occur before a videotaped press briefing. A former member of the

White House press corps The White House press corps is the group of journalists, correspondents, and members of the media usually assigned to the White House in Washington, D.C., to cover the president of the United States, White House events, and news briefings. It ...

provided the following historical context: :"Gaggles" historically refer to informal briefings the press secretary conducts with the press pool rather than the entire press corps. ...they were more or less off the record, and their purpose was mostly to exchange information - the president's schedule and briefing schedule, from the administration side; heads-up on likely topics or early comment on pressing issues, from the news side. Briefings were what everybody knows them to be. : In previous administrations, when the President traveled, sometimes the press secretary would hold a gaggle with the press pool that travels on

Air Force One Air Force One is the official air traffic control designated call sign for a United States Air Force aircraft carrying the president of the United States. In common parlance, the term is used to denote U.S. Air Force aircraft modified and us ...

- not every time, but sometimes, and always informally. In this administration, Ari .e._Ari_Fleischer.html" ;"title="Ari_Fleischer.html" ;"title=".e. Ari Fleischer">.e. Ari Fleischer">Ari_Fleischer.html" ;"title=".e. Ari Fleischer">.e. Ari Fleischerdoes a gaggle on the plane every time the President goes out of town, and a transcript is made available for press corps members who weren't on the plane. These mid-air mini-briefings are the "gaggles" you can find transcripts of on the White House website. The blog maintained by ''Newsweek'' magazine's political reporters is called The Gaggle; on their main page, their definition for "gaggle" when used to refer to the Washington, D.C. press, is "a flock of reporters pecking at a politician." Not commonly used in society. According to longtime dean of the White House press corps

Helen Thomas Helen Amelia Thomas (August 4, 1920 – July 20, 2013) was an American reporter and author, and a long serving member of the White House press corps. She covered the White House during the administrations of ten U.S. presidents—from th ...

, the term was coined by Dee Dee Myers, the White House Press Secretary in 1993–94 during the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over ...

. :About mid-morning, the press corps heads into its first briefing in the press secretary's office. Dee Dee Myers began calling it the morning "gaggle" and the name seems to have stuck.... We gather around the press secretary's desk, ask our questions and then head back to our offices to write our stories. "Gaggle" was prominently in the news on February 24, 2017. The Trump White House excluded several major news organizations, including CNN, the New York Times and Politico, from a regular press gaggle. Favorable press outlets were not excluded. Responses from the press included charges of "war on fake news."

References

{{Reflist American journalism Journalism terminology White House