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If you could change anything about the White House Press Corps, what would it be?

• The made the news twice in recent days:  first, they complained that President did not provide them any access to him during his weekend golf trip to Florida (see http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/283647-press-corps-expresses-frustration-over-lack-of-access-to-obama), and then Politico released a lengthy story describing the President's relationship with the press as one of a "puppet master," and outlining White House reporters' criticisms of their handling by White House staff (see http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=A22E8106-D4AF-436E-84DB-77354D107AA4). And while I was rather unsympathetic to their complaints, the articles got me wondering about how to improve the White House Press Corps' reporting.  So here's the hypothetical:  assuming you, the new head of the White House Correspondents Association, could get agreement from your fellow reporters and their parent organizations, and could negotiate with the White House, what changes to White House reporting would you want to make? (I'd prefer to avoid the cliche of "asking hard questions" if at all possible.  I'm thinking more about structural, behavioral, and normative changes).

• Answer:

  The one single thing that the White House Press Corps could do to make themselves relevant is to ask followup questions. For some reason, each reporter seems locked in on the question that they want to ask rather than to challenge or clarify a non-answer that they just received to someone's previous question. It's as if they view asking their own question and perhaps making a statement prior to the question more important that obtaining meaningful answers. Very few of today's White House correspondents seem intent on getting a real answer and just accept whatever is said in response. Sam Donaldson is a liberal. But he was an absolute bulldog when he was covering the White House. It didn't matter if the President was a Republican or a Democrat, he wouldn't stop until he got clarification on the question that was asked. By and large, this group today is too polite and deferential. They seem willing to accept non-answers and deflections. Jake Tapper is the exception. They're doing a disservice as journalists.