The White House barred several news organizations from an off-camera news briefing on Friday, handpicking a select group of reporters that included a number of conservative outlets friendly toward US President Donald Trump.
The “gaggle” with White House press secretary Sean Spicer took place in lieu of his daily briefing and was originally scheduled as an on-camera event.
However, the White House press office announced later in the day that the question-and-answer session would take place off camera before only an “expanded pool” of journalists, and in Spicer’s West Wing office as opposed to the James S. Brady press briefing room where it is typically held.
Photo: EPA
Outlets seeking to gain entry whose requests were denied included the Guardian, the New York Times, Politico, CNN, BuzzFeed, the BBC, the Daily Mail and others.
Conservative publications such as Breitbart News, the One America News Network and the Washington Times were allowed into the meeting, as well as TV networks CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC. The Associated Press and Time were invited, but boycotted the briefing.
The decision to limit access to Spicer, hours after Trump once again declared that much of the media was “the enemy of the American people” while speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, marked a dramatic shift.
“Gaggles” — more informal briefings — with the press secretary are traditionally only limited to the pool when they conflict with the president’s travel, in which case they often take place aboard Air Force One.
The White House Correspondents’ Association president Jeff Mason said the organization’s board was “protesting strongly” against the Trump administration’s action.
“We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not,” Mason said. “The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”
New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”
“Claims that outlets were excluded are not factual,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said. “The pool was there, so various media mediums were represented.”
Contrary to Grisham’s statement, outlets who made requests to attend were told this would not be permitted.
When the Guardian asked to participate, pointing to its possession of a “hard pass” that grants daily entry to the White House, an official declined.
“No, unfortunately a hard pass does not necessarily guarantee entry into the gaggle,” Catherine Hicks, a junior White House press aide, e-mailed in response. “The gaggle today is just today’s pool with the addition of a few others here at the White House.”
Earlier on Friday, Trump continued his assault on the media in a speech before the nation’s largest gathering of conservative activists.
He said the media should not be allowed to use anonymous sources, a restriction on free speech he has not suggested before.
“You will see stories dry up like you have never seen before,” Trump said. “As you saw throughout the entire campaign, and even now, the fake news doesn’t tell the truth.”
“I say it doesn’t represent the people, it never will represent the people, and we’re going to do something about it,” he said.
Trump’s comments came on the heels of revelations that his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus spoke with top officials at the FBI about the bureau’s investigation into potential links between the president’s associates and Russia.
The White House lambasted the reports, which appeared in CNN and the Associated Press, but in doing so confirmed the conversations between Priebus, FBI director James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe.
The decision by Trump’s administration to restrict access to the media for Spicer’s briefing prompted at least some seasoned reporters to observe that the White House had successfully changed the topic.
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