February 24, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "The
Independent"
-
The White House has blocked several
major news outlets from covering its press
briefing.
White House Press Secretary
Sean Spicer on Friday hand selected news
outlets to participate in an off-camera “gaggle”
with reporters inside his West Wing office
instead of the James S Brady Press Briefing
Room.
The news outlets blocked from the press
briefing include organisations who
President Trump has criticised by name. CNN,
BBC, The New York Times, LA Times,
New York Daily News, BuzzFeed,
The Hill, and the Daily Mail,
were among the news outlets barred from the
gathering.
Instead, the press secretary
hand-picked news outlets including Breitbart
News, One America News Network, The
Washington Times, all news organisations
with far-right leanings. Others major outlets
approved included ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News,
Reuters and Bloomberg.
“Nothing like this has ever happened at
the White House in our long history of covering
multiple administrations of different parties,”
Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New
York Times, said in a statement.
“We strongly protest the exclusion of
The New York Times and the other news
organizations. Free media access to a
transparent government is obviously of crucial
national interest.”
BuzzFeed’s
editor-in-chief, Ben Smith, also
responded to his outlet being barred from
the briefing: “While we strongly object to the
White House’s apparent attempt to punish news
outlets whose coverage it does not like, we
won’t let these latest antics distract us from
the work of continuing to cover this
administration fairly and aggressively.”
And the BBC's Washington
bureau chief, Paul Danahar, said: “We understand
there may be occasions when, due to space or
circumstances, the White House restricts press
events to the established pool.
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“However, what happened today
did not fit into that pattern. On this occasion
selected media were allowed to attend the
briefing and the selected media, including the
BBC, were not.
"The BBC has a representative
at every daily White House briefing so we are
not clear why we were barred from today's. We
have sought clarification from the White House
Press team. Out reporting will remain fair and
impartial regardless.”
Several media outlets including the
Associated Press and TIME Magazine declined to
attend the briefing to boycott the President's
decision.
A Wall Street Journal reporter attended
the meeting without being aware of the
circumstances. The publication later promised to
boycott similar press briefings.
"The Wall Street Journal strongly
objects to the White House's decision to bar
certain media outlets from today's gaggle,” a
spokesperson with the newspaper said in a
statement. “Had we known at the time, we would
not have participated and we will not
participate in such rest
Fox News anchor Bret Baier discouraged
conservative news outlets who celebrated the
gaggle, citing organisations who defended his
network when former President Obama tried to
freeze out Fox News in 2009.
“Some at CNN and New York Times stood
with Fox News when the Obama admin attacked us
and tried to exclude us,” he wrote on
Twitter, “a White House gaggle should be
open to all credentialed orgs.”
President Trump renewed his attacks on
the media by again calling news outlets “the
enemy of the people” at the Conservative
Political Action Conference in Washington DC.
"I'm against the people that make up stories and
make up sources," he told his audience. "They
shouldn't be allowed to use sources unless they
use somebody's name. Let their name be put out
there."
His comments come on the heel of
reports that President Trump’s Chief of Staff
Reince Priebus privately asked the FBI to
prevent news stories of the Trump campaign’s
communication with Russian intelligence.
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The
views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions of Information Clearing
House.
