White House bars CNN, N.Y. Times, others from press briefing
Bob Unruh/WND
Some White House reporters on Friday erupted in anger when the daily briefing was moved to press secretary Sean Spicer’s office, limiting the number of reporters who could attend.
And no matter the reason for the change, which excluded a number of major media outlets, it became a flashpoint in the establishment media’s long-running opposition to President Trump.
After an election campaign in which establishment media essentially provided a cheering section for Hillary Clinton, the relationship hasn’t improved, with President Trump calling outlets such as CNN “fake news.”
On Friday, the clash flared into white-hot flames after Spicer held what Washington media insiders call a “gaggle,” an off-camera briefing by a White House spokesman with a small gathering of reporters.
They are common, for example, on Air Force One, where not all regular Washington reporters travel with the president. However, in attendance at all such events is a “pool,” a designated team of reporters representing all media outlets.
On Friday, when Spicer held the gaggle in his office, Fox News, ABC News, NBC News, pool reporters and others were allowed in.
But CNN, the New York Times, the Hill, Politico, RealClearPolitics.com, BBC News and others were left out.
The media cast the issue negatively in chorus fashion.
“White House blocks news organizations from press briefing,” claimed CNN.
The Hill said “White House hand-picks select media outlets for briefing.”
Politico’s headline was “White House selectively blocks media outlets from briefing with Spicer.”
The New York Daily News said “White House bars Daily News and many other outlets from press briefing after Trump threatens to ‘do something’ about the media.”
Benjamin Mullin at the Poynter Institute characterized it as a rebellion by reporters “after the White House excluded CNN and other outlets from attending” the gaggle.
Mullin noted Trump’s “stinging” critique of the media at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier Friday and said the reporters from Associated Press and Time boycotted their reporting jobs “in solidarity” with their colleagues.
Poynter reported Jeff Mason, chief of the White House Correspondents’ Association, was protesting.
“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” he said in a statement. “We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”
There was less than zero tolerance from some quarters for the reporters’ whining.
“Boohoo: CNN releases smarmy statement about being blocked from White House media gaggle,” said Twitchy.
“Reads a little like a scorned girlfriend, does it not? And as you might expect, Twitter didn’t exactly feel sorry for the media giant … you could even say people all but mocked their pain.”
Shortly after the inauguration, the White House floated the idea of moving the press briefing completely away from the White House, enraging reporters.
Spicer also has begun taking questions from reporters outside of Washington, through Skype, and grants a variety of news outlets the first question during briefs, a privilege that AP had claimed for decades.
CNN said it was “unacceptable” that Spicer would choose which reporters he would meet with on a particular day.
Dean Baquet of the New York Times told Poynter: “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. We strongly protest the exclusion of the New York Times and the other news organizations.”
The Daily News charged: “It seems to be a calculated decision, possibly aimed at getting reporters to focus on inside-the-Beltway stories about the White House blocking access and playing games rather than bigger stories on what major actions the Trump administration is carrying out.”
The fracas included a sort of a confrontation in the White House, the Daily News said.
“CNN, the Daily News and others gathered to ask for an explanation of who was being allowed in, and White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham accused the reporters of ‘threatening’ her when one reporter said that we would be filing stories about the issue,” the report said.
The Hill said, “After some reporters voiced their frustrated (sic) with the arrangement, Grisham asked a uniformed Secret Service officer to tell them to leave the hallway.”
Even the media’s reporting on the confrontation was challenged as “fake.”
Grisham said in a statement that reports that “outlets were excluded are not factual.”
“The pool was there, so various media mediums were represented.”
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