Chilling.
Politico have posted audio from Sean Spicer’s White House press briefing on Friday, in which he explains why reporters from the likes of CNN, the New York Times and the BBC – among others – were excluded from his updates.
He was asked, “Are CNN and the New York Times not in here right now because you are unhappy with their reporting? Why are they not in here?”
The Press Secretary responded: “Because we had a pool and then we expanded it. We added some folks to come cover it.”
The reporter then pointed out that there was enough room for everyone, before Spicer revealed the real reason for the ban after he was told, “We’re going to aggressively push back.”
“It was my decision to decide to expand the pool,” Spicer responded. “We’re just not going to sit back and let false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.”
📻 Here's audio of what @seanspicer said at a press gaggle where certain media outlets were blocked from attending https://t.co/UVBA6wxHob pic.twitter.com/8zWskdydzT
— POLITICO (@politico) February 24, 2017
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 the Press Secretary, 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 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
