White House bars Media Outlets

LINK

The White House on Friday blocked a number of media outlets, including CNN and POLITICO, from an off-camera briefing with press secretary Sean Spicer, while allowing in a select group of journalists that included many conservative outlets.

The White House had earlier planned on having an on-camera gaggle with Spicer in the briefing room, but the administration later in the day changed it to a restricted off-camera gaggle in Spicer’s office.

The shift — a notable break from protocol — came as the White House is trying to contain fallout from reports that chief of staff Reince Priebus pressured the FBI to shoot down articles about frequent contact between Trump campaign officials and Russian intelligence officials.

Instead of hosting the typical briefing on camera in the briefing room — which in the first month has been regularly broadcast live on the major cable networks — the White House invited the pool, which on Friday consisted of Hearst Newspapers and CBS, into Spicer’s office, along with a select group of other outlets. Because of the presence of the pool, the information was still shared with the entire White House press corps.

The White House blocked: Politico, BBC, NYT, CNN, LA Times

Okay Trumpettes. I'm waiting. What's the excuse now?

How to Build an Autocracy

Meanwhile, social media circulate ever-wilder rumors. Some people believe them; others don’t. It’s hard work to ascertain what is true.

Nobody’s repealed the First Amendment, of course, and Americans remain as free to speak their minds as ever—provided they can stomach seeing their timelines fill up with obscene abuse and angry threats from the pro-Trump troll armies that police Facebook and Twitter. Rather than deal with digital thugs, young people increasingly drift to less political media like Snapchat and Instagram.

Trump-critical media do continue to find elite audiences. Their investigations still win Pulitzer Prizes; their reporters accept invitations to anxious conferences about corruption, digital-journalism standards, the end of nato, and the rise of populist authoritarianism. Yet somehow all of this earnest effort feels less and less relevant to American politics. President Trump communicates with the people directly via his Twitter account, ushering his supporters toward favorable information at Fox News or Breitbart.

If you have an hour to donate to reading an article, I highly recommend this one.

Surely banning these press organizations won't result in any bad press, right?

Good fucking god, this administration is going by in dog years. A month of Trump feels like 5 years of W. Bush.

Wow... land of the free, hey?! Not so sure anymore. You guys gotta get rid of these clowns. Somehow.

This is how dictatorships start. Maybe people weren't exaggerating about what a tyrant he would be after all. What's it been? Like four weeks?

CNN is pissed and doesn't hold back.

Trump has done the impossible. I miss GWB.:(

Yeah. Guess I'm going to have to start calling my Rep and Senators. Others should do the same. They need to hear that the people aren't on board with this shit.

Hey hey careful now. Don't get Subzero so antsy about those comparisons.

So the Trump administration now fits the Trump administrations own definition of a dictatorship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/02/24/in-december-spicer-said-barring-media-access-is-what-a-dictatorship-does-today-he-barred-media-access/?utm_term=.210681257226

I lol'd

@xdude85: In a best case scenerio, this explicit and public lack of access would cause CNN to calibrate their approach and, rather than seek official access, publicly state "We will not give in to demands to sugar coat coverage in exchange for access," and then proceed to operate without that official access.

Heaven knows CNN needs a new reputation anyway, but it will never happen.

So suppression of the press is a good thing? Okay.

They're fake news.

Whatever you say, you little ray of sunshine ;)

He can't handle the truth.............

So why is suppression of the press a good thing?

The BBC was even banned. They don't want any press that might question them. Period. Sad day for democracy.

Never said that suppression is a good thing, seems like you're coming on to me..... Maybe if WaPost, NYT, and CNN start being honest instead of making up stories and refusing to name "sources" of their claim that Trump works for Russia? Maybe they won't be barred? Not all press is barred, just those big ones that Trump deemed dishonest.

You're the one saying "lol."

What lies have they said and were they false? You're saying things but you're not backing it up with anything.

Dear god.

Literally the first rule of journalism is to NEVER reveal your sources. You are asking them to do something that no news agency, credible or otherwise, does lol. Nor do they "make up" stuff, as evidenced by the fact you couldn't even post one example.

The current administration's definition of "fake news" is anything they don't agree with or that works against them. The whole point of this strategy is to deflect from their own screw ups and the fact it's a month into the administration and they've achieved nothing. Trump and co. need someone to blame and the media is that target because his party controls all three branches of government, so you can't blame them. The media is enshrined in the constitution and if Trump has an issue with that that's his problem.

I'd wager this is just another deflection and they themselves created this news story to distract from other, more damaging news, that's broken today.

He is just emulating his hero Trump. Backing things up with evidence was the old way of doing things, we have a dictator now. He said in the post above "Trump deemed dishonest". That's all the proof he needs.

Me saying "LOL" means I agree for barring the media? LOL

Wow. Amazing that people actually buy his narrative. It's not fake news. It's news Trump doesn't like. There is a difference. As for sources.....the intelligence communities are the ones investigating. That should tell you right there that something exists. Trump barred the BBC. Seriously dude...the BBC.

This is not merely the administration's definition. This is the Republican base's definition, and it's been in development a long time. They've been trained to distrust "the mainstream media" since at least McCain's campaign and arguably earlier.

And it's beginning to spread, both within that party and without. We need to stop this now before everyone wanders off into their own echo chambers.

Oh yeah, for sure. Just pointing out it's the first time a US presidential administration is doing it so openly (at least in my lifetime, I know Nixon was similar to this).

Yeah, same here. I've never seen anything like this in the US.

I don't think Nixon was this bad.

If someone wont learn their place you have to make them.

Outlets want to make up news stories? They're going to learn that you don't get all access.

Between the bathroom bill and now this it's been a fantastic week for this administration.

This administration won't last their term.

I've said it before, they're going 12 years.

Well that's fucked up.

@Jaysonguy: I wouldn't be surprised if Trump holds office for the next 20 years, executing anyone who points out that his term has expired.

Just a reminder: This... isn't... normal!

And he must go!

How is not letting them into a press briefing a suppression? Has they been banned from going on air? have they been stopped for going all in on this story or any other story? Infact this just makes them even more angry and even more likely to keep digging for dirt.

But it´s fun to read this thread, some people clearly don't know how a free world works.

And how do you see that happening? has the military started to roam the street? have the supreme court been killed?

But nice try :) perhaps try something that is actually possible and not a figment of the snowflakes mind.

You clearly lack an understanding how tyranny works. It doesn't begin with one giant leap. It's a step-by-step process. First it's not letting the media into the press briefing. Then it's calling the press "an enemy of the people" which Trump gleefully stated at CPAC. Then it will be something else that's worse but will result in the same response from apologists: "They're not being suppressed! You don't know how the free world works!"

Clearly you lack an understanding how the free world is suppose to work.

You're clearly paranoid as Alex Jones

Clearly you need to take off that tin foil hat.

And again not letting some media into a press briefing is how the free world works,.

Media does not and will not have a carte blanche to go where they see fit, they have to abide by laws and rules like everyone else.

If you want to talk about supression, go check up on what happened to CNN in Venezuela, and until that happens here in the us , please take of that tin foil hat.

@R3FURBISHED: Trump is running an autocracy like a king. Oh CNN is fake news turn that off. Let me tweet my policies.

Can someone elaborate on the whole "off-camera briefing" - how different is it from the usual press briefings?

Those are Trump's words, not mine.

Clearly you need to stop drinking that Trump Koolaid. Give an inch and suddenly they want a mile. lol laws and rules? wtf are you talking about? Don't criticize the president for being a corrupt asshole is a law? lol ok.

Also, look at Trump's tweet about the media and then tell me otherwise.

And how did Trump stop CNN for reporting that Trump is a asshole or anything else?

Again all that happened was that a few select media was denied entry into a room where some idiot stood and said absolute nothing of value.

You really need to learn perspective.

And Trump calling a few media outlets fake news, is his right, is it presidential of course not and it´s funny as shit that an american president is actually using twitter like a teenager would.

Impeach this dude, and lets move on.

LoL @ all the trumpets trying to directly justify this. Even Trump himself conceded that the leaks and anonymous sources were true. The major news outlets haven't made anything up. The only thing that ever came close was the face pissing dossier, and even now elements of that dossier [not the piss fetish parts] have been independently corroborated.

Good, eff those fake news spreading traitors! Glad Trump is ruling with an iron fist

Good. That's what they get, bunch of crybabies.

Of what right does Trump have to step in between the people and the government and say, "I approve of X media, but not of Y, therefor X is going to be informed while Y isn't", thereby allowing X media (who he's deemed favorable to him) to get and spread their take on information out to the public but not of Y? In impeding citizens from their ability to choose whatever media they desire, privy to equality in exposure regardless of accuracy in actual truth, the media isn't the enemy of the people.....it is in effect Trump, his administration, and his followers that are. Who is Trump, a provable liar and con-man if there ever was one, one to act the determinant of truth? What a joke, as are his mindless, rabid sheep that advocate his bullshit. It is the people that determine what they wish to listen to, true or false. For anyone to even try to argue that what affords their ability to do so should be in any manner state-regulated stands antithetical to American values.

Republican or Democrat, this should be opposed vehemently on all sides. I think everyone defending this are the one who really needs to remove themselves from blind partisanship to learn some perspective. Anyone who supports this are not even real Americans; the term "American" in their case only extends so far as how it serves the party they support, and what a disgrace it is. A bunch of partisan traitors to this nation's values, they are nothing more, and they know it. The truly sad part is, they just don't care.