The White House on Friday barred a few news networks from its press briefing, as President Donald Trump continues to fight against those who allegedly spread “fake news.”
Media houses like CNN, the New York Times, Buzzfeed, the Los Angeles Times and Politico were all denied access.
The briefing was a “gaggle” — an informal session that’s on the record, but without cameras televising the event.
However, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox, Breitbart, the Washington Times, and One America News Network were all given access.
The Associated Press and Time reportedly boycotted the briefing. Editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, Ben Smith in a statement, said: “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 continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively.”
The president of the White House Correspondents Association, Jeff Mason, said they will discuss the development.
“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” Mason, who is also chief white house correspondent for Reuters, said.
Executive editor of the New York Times, Dean Baquet, also issued a statement to the paper.
He said: “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Baquet said in the 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.”
A White House communications official denied that the publications had been blocked.
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