Friday, February 24, 2017

New York Times, CNN, Others Barred From Briefings After Trump Threatens to 'Do Something' About the Media


Want to try to distract from your suspect policies? Try this:

NYT reports:
Journalists from The New York Times and several ther news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps. Reporters from The Times, CNN, BuzzFeed News, The Los Angeles Times and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer allowed in reporters from only a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed to attend. Organizations allowed in included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all news outlets with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended. Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in to the briefing, chose not to attend as a form of protest of the White House’s actions.  
The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, issued a quick rebuke of the White House’s actions. “The W.H.C.A. board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” the association president, Jeff Mason, 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.”
The development came hours after Mr. Trump delivered a slashing broadside against the news media during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
These people have no respect for anything and are truly awful.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Could there be a cancellation or boycott of the WH Correspondents' Dinner?

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

I can!

Unknown said...

I find it heartening that Time and Associated Press chose to sit out, yet disheartening that no one else did. Maybe I can see/understand/ignore the pro-dictator "rags" going along, but the broadcast nets? Shameful.