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Major Media Outlets Refused Entry to White House Briefing

Accepted submission by -- OriginalOwner_ http://tinyurl.com/OriginalOwner at 2017-02-25 10:52:22
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Go away, cmn32480. You are not wanted here. Go vandalize someone else's efforts.

from the dangerous-sign dept.

Common Dreams reports [commondreams.org]

The White House's decision to selectively bar certain news outlets from a Friday afternoon [February 24] off-camera briefing with press secretary Sean Spicer has been decried as "undemocratic and unacceptable" [twitter.com]; "chilling" [twitter.com]; and "totalitarian". [twitter.com]

[...]New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet declared in a statement [twitter.com]: "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. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest."

In addition to CNN, the Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico, outlets that were blocked from the so-called "gaggle" reportedly included [thehill.com] The Hill, the BBC, the Guardian, and BuzzFeed. Right-wing outlets Breitbart and One American News were allowed in, among others.

The American Civil Liberties Union called [twitter.com] the exclusion "yet another disturbing example of the Trump [administration]'s contempt for the vital role a free press plays in our democracy".

Indeed, the incident played out just hours after Trump called the media an "enemy of the people" at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland.

For those who are counting, this is #6 on the Dr. Britt's list [ratical.org].


Original Submission