See No Evil: The White House held another off-camera, non-live press briefing yesterday as it continues its odd and hostile handling of the Fourth Estate. News organizations are allowed to release audio recordings of the briefing only when it’s over. The press office has held a traditional on-camera briefing only twice in the last two weeks.

The State Department and Pentagon are doing the same.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer has said that the off-camera briefings produce a more “substantive” discussion and avoid grandstanding by television correspondents trying to look smart and tough. “They’re not trying to figure out, ‘How do I get on TV? How do I ask some snarky question?’” Spicer told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham.

 CNN’s Jim Acosta tweeted, “The reason why is that YOUR government doesn’t want YOU to see and hear what they’re doing. In the United States of America.”

Dylan Byers writes for CNN that, “The White House press office has opted for an ad-hoc strategy intended to screw with the media — the language used inside the White House is stronger — and make them look ridiculous.”

Byers also says the press office staff is overstretched and fatigued, but they can’t find anyone who wants to work for them. “So far, all that search has revealed is that the people the White House wants aren’t interested in the job and the people who are interested in the job aren’t wanted by the White House.”

Leaky Ship: While the press office tries to manage the Trump message, the current administration is one of the leakiest in recent history. The leakers are not revealing flattering information. Elizabeth Drew writes for the NY Review of Books, “Where are all the leaks coming from? Many Republicans want to make this the issue rather than what the leaks reveal, but the fact that they keep coming is a sign of the state of near collapse of the White House staff. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Trump has the most unhappy staff ever, with some feeling a higher duty to warn the public about what they see as a danger to the country.”

Drew says the critical question is, “When, or will, Trump’s voters realize that he isn’t delivering on his promises, that his health care and tax proposals will help the wealthy at their expense, that he isn’t producing the jobs he claims?” Drew says, “People can have a hard time recognizing that they’ve been conned. And Trump is skilled at flimflam, creating illusions. But how long can he keep blaming his failures to deliver on others—Democrats, the “dishonest media,” the Washington “swamp”? None of this is knowable yet. What is knowable is that an increasingly agitated Donald Trump’s hold on the presidency is beginning to slip.”

Nation: For the third time in a week, the trial of a police officer accused of murdering a black man has ended without a conviction. The trial of Raymond Tensing, a former University of Cincinnati police officer, ended in a hung jury. Tensing shot and killed Samuel DuBose, an unarmed motorist in 2015.

Poor Health: Nevada’s Republican Sen. Dean Heller became the fifth Senator to say he won’t vote for the Republican healthcare bill as it is. Heller said the law “takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans.” The Republicans can lose only two votes from their majority and still pass their promised repeal and replacement of Obamacare.

World: A landslide in southwestern China today swept away 40 homes and buried as many as 140 people.

The Obit Page: Gabe Pressman, the short and rumpled reporter sometimes described as the “dean” of television news in New York, died yesterday at age 93. Pressman was there practically at the moment they switched on the lights for television news. He spent more than 50 years working for WNBC, covering everything from the arrival of the Beatles  in New York to the Woodstock festival, elections, scandals, murders, garbage and transit strikes, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. He worked right up to his death.

Crosshairs: The Canadian military says one of its snipers in Iraq killed an ISIS fighter from a record distance of 2.2 miles. It took the bullet almost 10 seconds to get there. The previous record was 1.54 miles set by a British sniper. The Washington Post reports that, “Wind speed, temperature, barometric pressure, the bullet’s yaw and the rotation of the earth would all need to be considered before pulling the trigger.”

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