CHRIS CUOMO (CO-HOST): Let’s talk about this fundamental question of practice, Brian Stelter. Transparent. Is transparent when they show what they want you to see, or is transparency an actual higher obligation that has not yet been met?
BRIAN STELTER: Transparency is something bigger than what we've seen. Donald Trump has not spoken in a press conference setting for the first five weeks as president-elect. Normally presidents-elect do that within a few days of the election. That's an easy example of how we're not seeing transparency. President Obama was having a bunch of press conferences at this point as president-elect, and that was in [the] midst of the financial crisis, where a lot of reasons why he was speaking to the press regularly. But we're not seeing the same kind of access to Donald Trump. It's not enough just to point a camera at the Trump Tower lobby, which is a public space where anyone can be. That's not enough to know what is actually happening upstairs at the transition.
ALISYN CAMEROTA (CO-HOST): I want to sit with you, Brian, one more second before we get to Liz. There's also bad signs that we've seen. We've seen some things that suggest that the access to the president will not be what we have seen for decades. For instance, they have now suggested that the daily press briefings might change, might go away. We have also heard that they might get rid of the Saturday radio addresses. Donald Trump has suggested changing the libel laws. As we know, they've dodged the protective press pool that travels with them a couple of times. If you put all these together, it seems like it will be one of the least transparent.
STELTER: Put all these together, and these are real threats to how the fourth estate operates, how journalists gather information on a daily basis.
