CNN, NY Times, LA Times, Politico, the BBC, the Guardian, and Buzzfeed were among those barred from Friday’s briefing, actually a “gaggle”, in Sean Spicer’s office. They need to be barred, but it’s so much less than that. Their whining is over not always having a place at the head of the table because someone else got it. Spicer is expanding the press pool to include organizations like The Washington Times.
One must wonder how Buzzfeed ever got into any briefings, they’re a very big joke.
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The press secretary replaced the day’s briefing with an informal “gaggle” and replaced some of the elite outlets with new ones. Since the media is obviously an arm of the Democrat Party, is this so wrong?
Spicer’s off-camera briefing, or “gaggle,” replaced the usual televised daily news briefing in the White House briefing room. He didn’t exactly say why these Democrat Party PR machines were barred.
These outlets in particular constantly post misinformation, partial information, biased accounts about Trump and his staff. Perhaps, a change is needed to balance the news.
The pool usually includes a representative from one television network and one print outlet. In this case, four of the five major television networks -NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News –Â were invited and attended the meeting, while only CNN was blocked.
And while The New York Times was kept out along with others, conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network were allowed in.
Imagine, outlets not in bed with the Democrat Party were invited to the pool!
Spicer is actually expanding the pool and there wasn’t room for all of them.
Asked whether CNN and The New York Times were blocked because the administration was unhappy with their reporting, Spicer responded: “We had it as pool, and then we expanded it, and we added some folks to come cover it. It was my decision to expand the pool.”
Reuters reported:Â President Donald Trump has regularly attacked the media and at a gathering of conservative activists on Friday he criticized news organizations that he said provide “fake news”, calling them the “enemy” of the American people.
If you will notice, Reuters gives the impression that Donald Trump said all media were the “enemy” of the American people. The way it’s phrased is quite sly. Trump said “fake news” is the “enemy” of the American people.
The fake news media were infuriated about the changes. They’re so self-important.
“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.”
The White House Correspondents Association, or WHCA, also protested:Â “The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” said Jeff Mason, president of the association and a Reuters reporter.
Jake Tapper said it was “unAmerican.”
“The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House’s decision to bar certain media outlets from today’s gaggle,” a Journal spokesman said. “Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future.”
The White House move was called “appalling” by Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, who said the Trump administration is on “an undemocratic path.”
Politico editor-in-chief John Harris said that “selectively excluding news organizations from White House briefings is misguided.”
Said BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith: “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.”
If Buzzfeed can be at briefings, Breitbart certainly can.
