In a move that had many defenders of the free press up in arms, the White House shut out reporters from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CNN, and Politico from a gaggle with Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Friday.
The bar comes after President Donald Trump doubled down on earlier comments calling The New York Times, ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC the fake news media and “the enemy of the American people” in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Friday morning.
“The fake news doesn’t tell the truth,” Trump said in his speech. “I say it doesn’t represent the people. It never will represent the people. And we’re going to do something about it.”
To express solidarity with the barred publications, reporters from The Associated Press and Time Magazine also did not attend the press briefing, while journalists from Fox News, NBC, Breitbart News, and The Wall Street Journal stayed inside.
According to the New York Times, these are the publications that have been attending the daily press briefings since Trump took office:
- NBC Fox CBS Associated Press ABC Reuters CNN The Wall Street Journal CBS Radio Bloomberg NPR The Washington Post The New York Times AP Radio AFP USA TODAY McClatchy American Urban Radio Network Politico Tribune ABC Radio Foreign pool MSNBC Washington Times The Hill Fox Radio Voice of America National Journal Bloomberg BNA Time Yahoo New York Daily News Hearst New York Post Real Clear Politics Chicago Sun Times/Al Jazeera Washington Examiner Yahoo Salem Radio Network Media News/Daily Beast Christian Science Monitor Sirius Dow Jones Talk Radio News Service Dallas Morning News Roll Call CBN Boston Globe/BBC Scripps/Buzzfeed Financial Times/The Guardian