New York Times, CNN, others barred from press briefing

[Aegon]

The third thread in my little series I like to call, "Trump vs the First Amendment," Trump does exactly what I've been afraid of:

White House bars Daily News and many other outlets from press briefing after Trump threatens to 'do something' about the media

The White House ramped up its war with the press Friday afternoon, barring multiple outlets including the Daily News from getting to ask questions as it let in a select few for a briefing from Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Among the many outlets barred from Spicer's office: CNN, The New York Times, The Hill, Politico, RealClearPolitics, BBC, and The News. Others — the conservative Breitbart and One America News Network — were given the nod and allowed in, as well as Fox News, ABC, NBC and the standard rotating "pool" of reporters who are allowed in to every public event.


The move came just hours after President Trump promised to "do something" about the "fake news" during a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference — and after Spicer angrily scolded reporters Friday morning for recent coverage of the FBI's reported investigation of ties between Russia and Trump's team.

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 White House canceled its planned on-camera daily press briefing and instead opted to have an off-camera meeting, known as a "gaggle," in Spicer's office — and chose who got to get in, outside the inner circle of reporters who are allowed on a rotating basis to attend all public events with President Trump. Reporters from a few outlets including Time and Associated Press refused to attend in protest.

The highly unusual move led to howls from reporters, who one by one were waved away from entering Spicer's office if they'd fallen on the wrong side of Trump's naughty or nice list.

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.


A White House staffer insisted on anonymity to push back on the characterization that the daily briefing had been canceled.

"On background I can tell you that we didn’t cancel the daily briefing in order to gaggle. In reality, we didn’t hold the briefing because the President gave a big speech today. That is pretty common and has been done in several past administrations," a staffer emailed in response to questions about what criteria the White House staff used to select who was allowed in, and why the meeting was canceled. "In addition, it was an expanded pool gaggle so we actually allowed more press in than the usual pooled events. TV and print poolers were there so all outlets were represented."

The White House Correspondents' Association immediately fired back at the White House's decision.

"The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House. 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," WHCA president Jeff Mason said in a statement.

The daily "poolers" — those who were in the pool rotation — will send a transcript to the rest of the White House reporters on what Spicer said. But the move keeps him from having to answer questions from outlets he doesn't want to deal with.

Senior White House reporters said they'd never seen another presidential administration make this move. But Trump did the same thing on the campaign trail, barring outlets he deemed hostile like Politico, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed, the Huffington Post and the Des Moines Register from getting press credentials.

"I'm not against the media, I'm not against the press. I don't mind bad stories when I deserve them… I am only against the fake news media, the fake press," Trump insisted in his Friday morning speech. "I love the First Amendment. Nobody loves it more than me."