An absolutely incredible development from Donald Trump’s White House.
A number of high profile news organisations have been banned from the White House press briefing.
CNN, BBC, The New York Times, LA Times, New York Daily News and the Daily Mail have all been shut out by Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who has instead hand-picked a number of right-leaning publications and websites to participate in an ‘off-camera’ gaggle.
Those organisations include Breitbart News, One America News Network and The Washington Times, who have been supportive of the early days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times said in a statement.
“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.”
CNN have also put out an official response on Friday evening…
CNN was blocked from WH @PressSec's media gaggle today. This is our response: pic.twitter.com/8SfY2uYKEI
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 24, 2017
NBC’s Bradd Jaffy posted this response to the measure.
Trump 10:32 a.m.: “I love the First Amendment.”
Trump White House 2 p.m.: Bans NYT, CNN, LATimes, Politico, BuzzFeed from informal briefing pic.twitter.com/3RUHOHDAde
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) February 24, 2017
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