After weeks of complaining about mainstream media outlets on Twitter and sending his representatives to address “fake news,” President Donald Trump put his foot down in an unprecedented way
Friday afternoon, the White House barred The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CNN, BBC and Politico from attending an informal Sean Spicer-led press briefing.
Reports of the closed-door meeting were quickly shared to the world by journalists on Twitter who contend there was a list of those allowed in, and those not allowed.
You-cant-sit-with-us, style.
“We invited the pool so everyone was represented,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told the Associated Press, who along with Time, choose to boycott the meeting entirely. “We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that.”
Subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest in hair, beauty, style and celebrity news.
Who was allowed in your ask?
Major networks ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. In addition to right-leaning publications like The Washington Times, One America News Network and the ever-problematic Steve Bannon-led Breitbart.
“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, the Times‘ executive editor, 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.”
All. Of. This. And it’s only been a month.