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In an emotional Tuesday afternoon meeting, outgoing 60 Minutes<\/em> executive producer Bill Owens<\/strong> reportedly expressed concerns<\/a> to staff that the venerable news program was losing its independence, a scenario playing out as CBS News parent Paramount is reportedly in talks<\/a> to settle a lawsuit of dubious<\/a> merit<\/a> brought by President Donald Trump.<\/strong> \u201cThe company,\u201d Owens told<\/a> his team, according to the Times,<\/em> \u201cis done with me.\u201d<\/p>\n In four days, CBS News staffers will gather for a more festive occasion: the White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner. The network is hosting a Saturday pre-party with Politico,<\/em> one of a flurry of f\u00eates and boozy brunches sponsored by news outlets and talent agencies that will take place at Washington hotels and hot spots, ambassadors\u2019 residences, and backyard gardens. But alongside this year\u2019s celebration of the First Amendment are reminders of just how much press freedom is being challenged<\/a> in a second Trump term, involving everything from White House access restrictions<\/a> to free speech threats<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in for a wild ride in terms of the games they\u2019re going to play,\u201d one political reporter told me, referring to the administration. The \u201cguardrails are gone\u201d in this second term, the reporter added, and as a result, \u201cthe solidarity of the press corps is going to be really tested.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump is skipping Saturday\u2019s dinner at the Washington Hilton, just as he did during his first term. The WHCA weathered such snubs in the past, but this time around, the organization is grappling with an administration that\u2019s already taken away one of the journalist-led group\u2019s primary functions and could nab a second. In February, the White House indicated that it would move to handpick the media outlets participating in the daily press pool<\/a>, a group of journalists who cover the president\u2019s words and actions in smaller settings for the news media, including when the president travels out of Washington. Jacqui Heinrich,<\/strong> Fox News reporter and a member of the WHCA board, told<\/a> Vanity Fair<\/em> that she was specifically concerned about the administration taking control of the press pool, saying, \u201cI\u2019m not sure the administration was thinking about the long run when they made [the decision].<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want access to the leader of the free world to be dependent on favorable coverage,\u201d Heinrich added. \u201cThat\u2019s the whole reason why the WHCA self-organized, beginning back in the early 1900s. It\u2019s just not what America stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n A major source of tension is a continued court battle playing out between the Associated Press and the White House, which banned<\/a> the outlet from the press pool in February after the AP\u2019s refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America in its coverage. The AP sued the administration in response, arguing that the ban raised questions about press freedom. On April 8, a federal judge ruled in favor<\/a> of the newswire, finding the ban in violation of the First Amendment and ordering the White House to reinstate access.<\/p>\n Just days later, the White House said that it was eliminating the rotating press pool spot for three major newswires<\/a>, which includes the AP along with Reuters and Bloomberg News. The AP filed a motion asking the court to enforce the injunction requiring the administration to allow the AP back into the pool rotation, which was denied<\/a> by a federal judge in Washington. Judge Trevor N. McFadden<\/strong> categorized the new policy as \u201cfacially neutral,\u201d adding that he would need time to determine whether it resulted in \u201cviewpoint discrimination.\u201d This past Saturday, the AP had finally made its way back into the official press pool<\/a>; however, Trump had no public events on his schedule.<\/p>\n CNN\u2019s Kaitlan Collins<\/strong> called<\/a> the White House\u2019s fight with the AP \u201cobviously retaliatory in nature,\u201d and a \u201cslippery slope\u201d for the administration to start heading down. The network\u2019s chief White House correspondent, who previously served as the WHCA president, is all for expanding the press pool, \u201cbut when you start taking people away, or removing people or banning them, that is where it\u2019s dangerous territory. That\u2019s kind of the moment we\u2019re at now,\u201d she tells me.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the White House briefing room, \u201cofficials have made room for a new cohort of more partisan attendees, like right-wing podcasters, who often ask less-adversarial questions than traditional journalists,\u201d as The New York Times<\/em> recently put it<\/a>. (Still, as Paul Farhi<\/strong> points out<\/a>, it\u2019s the more mainstream news outlets who are churning out the biggest Trump 2.0 scoops.) The White House is reportedly considering shaking up<\/a> the seating arrangements in the briefing room, which had also long been handled by the WHCA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n