SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Now, part of the Trump administration's argument for banning these new outlets is that their coverage posed a threat to national security. In a letter to Politico, the White House pointed to a story Politico published in June about the U.S. nearing a deal to end the war in Iran. It specifically raised concerns about a quote from an anonymous official, but it turns out the source was reportedly Vice President JD Vance. Oliver Darcy is a media reporter who first broke the story last night. He's the founder of Status, an outlet that covers the media. Welcome.
OLIVER DARCY: Hey. Thanks for having me.
DETROW: So the interesting thing here is the details are not that the vice president was, you know, anonymously tipping off reporters on a burner phone, but I think that makes what happened here even more glaring. Walk us through what happened with the initial reports and Vance's involvement.
DARCY: Yes, this was a sanctioned briefing by the White House. So the White House often holds what are called background briefings. And basically, it means that they'll make a senior official in the administration available to a large group of reporters who listen on a call and they can report what the official says. They're just told that they can only refer to this person anonymously by usually a, you know, description like a senior administration official, as was the case with this June 2026 report that Politico published. What's - you know, this is very common. Republicans and Democrats have been doing this for a long time. It's very common in Washington to be participating in these background briefings.
What's uncommon is a White House, obviously, that attacks and demonizes the press for using anonymous sourcing while often providing that anonymous sourcing in sanctioned calls like the one that JD Vance participated in about the Iran war.
DETROW: Right.
DARCY: And obviously, what's even more abnormal here is then accusing that outlet of endangering national security or spreading falsehoods for participating in a call they were invited to by the White House and following the ground rules of anonymously identifying the official versus just saying JD Vance said this on a call.
DETROW: Right, because even though the quotes are anonymous, this is about as sanctioned as information from a White House can get - these phone calls, these background briefings, like the one in question here. How are news outlets responding to this, the way that the White House has been portraying this, again, official White House call?
DARCY: I mean, I think - I mean, most news outlets, to be clear, actually can't even respond to this because they were part of this background briefing call, which kind of makes this interesting. You haven't seen this broadly reported because most outlets - CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post - they agreed to the rules of this call, which meant that they cannot identify JD Vance as the source of the information. They all published stories about what was said on this background briefing call.
So actually, you're seeing kind of a muted response from a lot of other outlets, which could definitely - they definitely know that JD Vance is the source. They were on this call. We were not on the call, which is why we can identify him, because we never agreed to these rules.
I think in the journalism community, it looks really bad for JD Vance. I mean, this is very embarrassing for the White House. They invited Politico to this call. Politico followed all the rules and reported what JD Vance told reporters on this call. And then the White House, a couple months later, uses that against Politico and accuses them of violating national security or endangering national security. I've been reporting on media for over a decade. I have never seen anything like this. I've always thought it was strange the White House, under Trump, who bashes anonymous sources, holds these background briefing calls, where he - where they require people to anonymously identify officials. I've always thought that was weird and reporters should push back.
DETROW: Yeah.
DARCY: But I have never seen them then use this in court to justify banning a news organization from White House grounds.
DETROW: Did the White House respond to your reporting?
DARCY: The White House did not initially respond, no. They declined to comment when we reached out to them. They did later respond, basically saying this was a sanction briefing on X. So the White House is not denying that JD Vance was the source of this information. They are just saying it was a sanction briefing.
DETROW: You know, as a former White House correspondent, I have always found these background briefings kind of journalistically dubious on a few different fronts. I'm wondering, are you hearing from anyone in media organizations who are rethinking their participation in these going forward, given the way the Trump White House is weaponizing them?
DARCY: I haven't heard of that. I have always, though, agreed that it is very strange. Like if I were a reporter, I would be pushing for these to be on the record, particularly right now with this administration weaponizing, you know, the use of anonymous sources. And I can't understand why the White House, though, would continue to make officials like JD Vance, people that senior, available to reporters. I think it's great, but make it on the record. Why are they anonymously talking to reporters to give sanctioned information to the public? It doesn't make any sense.
DETROW: Oliver Darcy is a media reporter and founder of the outlet Status. Thank you so much.
DARCY: Thank you.
DETROW: NPR reached out to the White House for comment. They pointed us to a post on X that read in part, quote, "the White House holds regular press briefings to ensure accurate information is provided, but even then, the media lies and peddles misinformation." That's the quote. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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