(AP) — News organizations including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico were blocked from joining an informal, on the record White House press briefing on Friday.

The Associated Press chose not to participate in the gaggle following the move by White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

“The AP believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible,” Lauren Easton, the AP’s director of media relations, said in a statement.

Several news organizations were allowed in, including the conservative website Breitbart News. The site’s former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is chief strategist to President Donald Trump.

The White House defended the decision not to include some news organizations.

“We invited the pool so everyone was represented. We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that,” said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

Earlier Friday in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Donald Trump railed against the media.

“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. 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,” Dean Baquet, the Times’ executive editor, said in a statement.

“This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless,” CNN said in a statement.</s>Donald Trump’s war against media is escalating with each passing day, and it seems there will be no end to it in the foreseeable future. Is he purposely escalating the “fake media” war as a part of some larger strategy?

President Trump further intensified his attack on journalists via a speech at Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. He slammed the media outlets for creating fake stories.

Trump clarified his earlier tweet and blamed the media for misrepresenting the facts. He said that he had called the “fake news” as “the enemy of the people,” and not the entire press.

But the recent incident at White House has taken Donald Trump’s war against media to a different level. As reported by Politico, White House excluded reporters from media outlets it did not like, from a press conference held on Friday.

Customarily, the news briefing is open to all news organizations and is a televised coverage of the White House. As per his original schedule, Spicer was supposed to do the usual press briefing.

However, White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer decided to do the press conference off camera and with only a selected few news outlets.

The New York Times, Buzzfeed, Politico, CNN, The Hill, and LA Times were blocked from entering the press conference. On the other hand, right-leaning Breitbart, One America News, and Washington Times were all allowed.

Donald Trump’s ranting against “fake media” is one thing but the actual blocking of free press from attending a White House press conference was totally unexpected and is being perceived by many as an attack on democracy.

Dean Baquet, executive editor of New York Times, said in a statement, “nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history.” While a statement by CNN said, “Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless.” While, David Frum, Senior Editor at The Atlantic wrote,

Notwithstanding what people associated with media outlets that were blocked from the news conference said about the unfortunate incident, Sean Spicer himself had criticized the blocking of the free press in the past.

Donald Trump had revoked credentials of several reputable media outlets during his campaign. Defending the move back then, Spicer had made it clear that they would never do such as thing when they form the government. He had further added,

Donald Trump has time and again tried to cast himself as the people’s champion in the war against establishments. It is believed that the media outlets banned from the press conference had reported negative coverage of the White House.

The New York Times had reported a story indicating repeated contacts between Russian intelligence officials and Trump’s campaign members. Similarly, Buzzfeed had posted dossier on alleged Donald Trump-Russia ties.

Donald Trump also lashed out at the anonymous sources used by media organizations, during his speech at the CPAC conference. He reiterated the fact that he was against “fake media” who make up sources and stories, as reported by Telegraph.

Trump added that media outlets should not be allowed to use sources unless they name them. He further added, “Let their name be out there, Let there be no more sources (anonymous).”

While Donald Trump continues his fight against media, it is worth noting that his first month in the White House shows dismal performance. There was no significant achievement for him as his biggest accomplishment, the travel and immigration order is still in courts.

To add to his woes, there have been several leaks from within his government, and several scandals have emerged implicating his associates. With no opposition to attack, Donald Trump is trying to shift the focus by attacking the media.

According to the latest poll released by Quinnipiac University poll, 76 percent of the Republican voters believe that Trump is telling the truth about the media, whereas 86 percent Democratic voters trust the media. This large variation between the Republicans and Democratic voters is baffling.

It appears that Donald Trump is trying to eradicate the credibility of the media by constantly attacking them and calling them “fake news.” But, the latest move of blocking non-friendly media outlets from a press conference is going too far in the strategy of attacking the media.

Is blocking the free press the first sign of tyranny? Let us know your views in the comments section below.</s>President Donald Trump announced this evening that he will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this year. The annual dinner, a tradition since it began in 1920, is organized by the journalists who cover the White House and has been attended by the past 15 presidents, Republicans and Democrats. (Ronald Reagan, recuperating from an assassination attempt in 1981, delivered his remarks by phone ). Former President Barack Obama attended all eight dinners during his two-term presidency, memorably using the opportunity to both demonstrate his sense of humor and his ability to take a joke at his own expense. The event—an increasingly glitzy chance for celebrities, politicians, and the people who orbit them to rub shoulders—has come under some strain this year, considering the Trump administration’s current fraught relationship with the press: The President’s advisers call the media “the opposition party”; the President has called it the enemy of the American people. On Friday, in an unprecedented turn of events, CNN, The New York Times , The Los Angeles Times , and Politico were blocked from attending White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s briefing. Journalists from conservative outlets such as Breitbart News and Fox News were allowed inside.

“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year,” the President wrote on his personal Twitter account . “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” Looks like there’s going to be a lot more RSVP’s for Samantha Bee’s party , “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” funds from which are going to—what else?—the Committee to Protect Journalists .</s>United States President Donald Trump has said he will not attend the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, a high-profile event that draws celebrities, politicians and journalists.

His announcement came a day after the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) President said they were "protesting strongly" against the White House's decision to exclude several major news outlets from an informal press briefing.

Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer.

Mr Trump has had a strained relationship with the press, calling journalists "the enemy of the people" and frequently criticising outlets and individual reporters whose coverage he does not like.

The annual WHCA dinner will be held on April 29 in Washington.

Some news outlets such as Bloomberg News and The New Yorker, which typically host lavish after-parties, have said they are backing out this year.

Critics say the event, which usually features a humorous speech by the sitting president, encourages journalists to cosy up to politicians they should cover aggressively.

The event occasionally makes news: in 2011, President Barack Obama delivered a scathing evisceration of Mr Trump, joking that the mogul, who sat stone-faced in the audience, would move on from questioning Mr Obama's citizenship to figuring out "did we fake the moon landing".</s>Please enable Javascript to watch this video

WASHINGTON-- CNN and other news outlets were blocked on Friday from attending an off-camera White House press briefing that other reporters were hand-picked to attend, raising alarm among media organizations and First Amendment watchdogs.

The decision struck veteran White House journalists as unprecedented in the modern era, and escalated tensions in the already fraught relationship between the Trump administration and the press.

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, the BBC and the Guardian were also among those excluded from the meeting, which was held in White House press secretary Sean Spicer's office. The meeting, which is known as a gaggle, was held in lieu of the daily televised Q-and-A session in the White House briefing room.

When reporters from these news organizations tried to enter Spicer's office for the gaggle, they were told they could not attend because they were not on the list of attendees.

In a brief statement defending the move, administration spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House "had the pool there so everyone would be represented and get an update from us today."

The White House press pool usually includes representatives from one television outlet, one radio outlet and one print outlet, as well as reporters from a few wire services. In this case, four of the five major television networks -- NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News -- were invited and attended the meeting, while only CNN was blocked.

And while The New York Times was kept out, conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network were also allowed in.

"This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House," CNN said in a statement. "Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like. We'll keep reporting regardless."

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet wrote, "Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. 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."

The White House press office had informed reporters earlier that the traditional, on-camera press briefing would be replaced by a gaggle in Spicer's office, reporters in attendance said. Asked about the move by the White House Correspondents Association, the White House said it would take the press pool and invite others as well.

The WHCA protested that decision on the grounds that it would unfairly exclude certain news organizations, the reporters said. The White House did not budge, and when reporters arrived at Spicer's office, White House communications officials only allowed in reporters from specific media outlets.

CNN reporters attempted to access the gaggle when it began at about 1:45 p.m. ET. As they walked with a large group of fellow journalists from the White House briefing room toward Spicer's office, an administration official turned them around, informing them CNN wasn't on the list of attendees.

Reporters from The Associated Press, Time magazine and USA Today decided in the moment to boycott the briefing because of how it was handled.

Asked during the gaggle whether CNN and The New York Times were blocked because the administration was unhappy with their reporting, Spicer responded: "We had it as pool, and then we expanded it, and we added some folks to come cover it. It was my decision to expand the pool."

Several news outlets spoke out against the White House's decision.

"The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House's decision to bar certain media outlets from today's gaggle," a Journal spokesman said. "Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future."

The White House move was called "appalling" by Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, who said the Trump administration is on "an undemocratic path."

Politico editor-in-chief John Harris said that "selectively excluding news organizations from White House briefings is misguided."

Said BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith: "While we strongly object to the White House's apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won't let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively."

The Associated Press said it "believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible."

The White House Correspondents Association also protested the move.

"The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House," it said in a statement. "We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff."

Hours earlier, at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, President Trump mocked and disparaged the news media. He said that much of the press represents "the enemy of the people."

"They are the enemy of the people because they have no sources," Trump said. "They just make them up when there are none."

He also said reporters "shouldn't be allowed" to use unnamed sources.</s>News organizations including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico were blocked from joining an informal, on the record White House press briefing on Friday.

The Associated Press chose not to participate in the gaggle following the move by White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

"The AP believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible," Lauren Easton, the AP's director of media relations, said in a statement.

Several news organizations were allowed in, including the conservative Breitbart News. The site's former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is chief strategist to President Donald Trump.

The White House defended the decision not to include some news organizations.

"We invited the pool so everyone was represented. We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that," said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

Earlier Friday in a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference, President Donald Trump railed against the media.

"Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. 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," Dean Baquet, the Times' executive editor, said in a statement.

"This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like. We'll keep reporting regardless," CNN said in a statement.</s>WASHINGTON — CNN and other news outlets were blocked on Friday from attending an off-camera White House press briefing that other reporters were hand-picked to attend, raising alarm among media organizations and First Amendment watchdogs.

The decision struck veteran White House journalists as unprecedented in the modern era, and escalated tensions in the already fraught relationship between the Trump administration and the press.

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and BuzzFeed were also among those excluded from the meeting, which was held in White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s office. The meeting, which is known as a gaggle, was held in lieu of the daily televised Q-and-A session in the White House briefing room.

When reporters from these news organizations tried to enter Spicer’s office for the gaggle, they were told they could not attend because they were not on the list of attendees.

In a brief statement defending the move, administration spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House “had the pool there so everyone would be represented and get an update from us today.”

The White House press pool usually includes representatives from one television outlet, one radio outlet and one print outlet, as well as reporters from a few wire services. In this case, four of the five major television networks — NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox News — were invited and attended the meeting, while only CNN was blocked.

And while The New York Times was kept out, conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network were also allowed in.

“This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House,” CNN said in a statement. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless.”

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet wrote, “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. 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.”

The White House press office had informed reporters earlier that the traditional, on-camera press briefing would be replaced by a gaggle in Spicer’s office, reporters in attendance said. Asked about the move by the White House Correspondents Association, the White House said it would take the press pool and invite others as well.

The WHCA protested that decision on the grounds that it would unfairly exclude certain news organizations, the reporters said. The White House did not budge, and when reporters arrived at Spicer’s office, White House communications officials only allowed in reporters from specific media outlets.

CNN reporters attempted to access the gaggle when it began at about 1:45 p.m. ET. As they walked with a large group of fellow journalists from the White House briefing room toward Spicer’s office, an administration official turned them around, informing them CNN wasn’t on the list of attendees.

Reporters from The Associated Press, Time magazine and USA Today decided in the moment to boycott the briefing because of how it was handled.

Asked during the gaggle whether CNN and The New York Times were blocked because the administration was unhappy with their reporting, Spicer responded: “We had it as pool, and then we expanded it, and we added some folks to come cover it. It was my decision to expand the pool.”

Several news outlets spoke out against the White House’s decision.

“The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House’s decision to bar certain media outlets from today’s gaggle,” a Journal spokesman said. “Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future.”

“Selectively excluding news organizations from White House briefings is misguided and our expectation is that this action will not be repeated,” said Politico editor-in-chief John Harris.

“While we strongly object to the White House’s apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won’t let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively,” said BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith.

The Associated Press said it “believes the public should have as much access to the president as possible.”

The White House Correspondents Association also protested the move.

“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” it said in a statement. “We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”

Hours earlier, at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, President Trump mocked and disparaged the news media. He said that much of the press represents “the enemy of the people.”

“They are the enemy of the people because they have no sources,” Trump said. “They just make them up when there are none.”

He also said reporters “shouldn’t be allowed” to use unnamed sources.</s>Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that he is skipping the White House Correspondents Association dinner amid the most tense relationship between a sitting president and the press corps since the Nixon era.

Trump, who in the past few weeks has taken to calling media outlets who write pieces critical of his administration the “enemy of the American people” added, “please wish everyone well and have a great evening!”

The annual, celebrity-studded WHCA dinner has long been criticized as a display of too-cozy relations between the media and people they are supposed to cover fairly and critically. It usually involves a comedian or master of ceremonies roasting the president, and then president responding in kind. The proceeds go to scholarships. (Some outlets, choose not to attend the event. For example, the New York Times stopped going in 2007 and BuzzFeed News does not go.)

This year’s dinner posed a particularly sticky situation for both the White House and the media. Trump, while on the campaign trail, would condone chants of “CNN sucks!” at his rallies and sometimes called out specific reporters. That later developed into Trump adopting and using the term “fake news” for any article — generally published in the mainstream media — he didn’t like.

That only intensified when he entered office. He began calling some outlets — namely, The New York Times, NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and CNN — “the enemy of the American people,” which is unprecedented vitriol.

Earlier this month, the New Yorker, canceled its kickoff party and Vanity Fair said it was dropping out of sponsoring its exclusive after-party. This week, Bloomberg, Vanity Fair’s co-host, also dropped out. And on Friday BuzzFeed News reported that CNN was considering skipping the dinner all together.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House excluded several major U.S. news organizations, including some it has criticized, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary on Friday.

Journalists leave after several major news organizations including CNN, The New York Times and Politico were excluded from an off camera "gaggle" meeting with White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer in his office that was held in place of the regular daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 24, 2017. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer.

Spicer’s off-camera briefing, or “gaggle,” replaced the usual televised daily news briefing in the White House briefing room. He did not say why those particular news organizations were excluded, a decision which drew strong protests.

Reuters was included in the session, along with about 10 other news organizations, including Bloomberg and CBS.

President Donald Trump has regularly attacked the media and at a gathering of conservative activists on Friday he criticized news organizations that he said provide “fake news”, calling them the “enemy” of the American people.

Spicer said his team decided to have a gaggle in his office on Friday instead of a full briefing in the larger White House briefing room and argued that “we don’t need to do everything on camera every day.”

Reporters at the Associated Press and Time magazine walked out of the briefing when hearing that others had been barred from the session.

Off-camera gaggles are not unusual. The White House often invites handpicked outlets in for briefings, typically for specific topics. But briefings and gaggles in the White House are usually open to all outlets and they are free to ask anything.

A pool reporter from Hearst Newspapers was included in the gaggle on Friday and gave full details to the entire press corps. Media outlets allowed into the gaggle also shared their audio with others.

PROTESTS

Spicer’s decision drew a sharp response from some of the media outlets that were excluded.

“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.”

The White House Correspondents Association, or WHCA, also protested.

“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” said Jeff Mason, president of the association and a Reuters reporter.

During the election campaign last year, Trump’s team banned a few news organizations, including The Washington Post and BuzzFeed, from covering his campaign rallies for a period of time to protest their coverage.

CNN posted a Twitter message on Friday afternoon saying: “This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless.”

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Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, said in a statement: “While we strongly object to the White House’s apparent attempt to punish news outlets whose coverage it does not like, we won’t let these latest antics distract us from continuing to cover this administration fairly and aggressively.”

On Friday, Spicer said the White House plans to fight against what it says is unfair coverage.

“I think we’re going to aggressively push back,” he said. “We’re just not going to sit back and let false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there.”</s>NEW YORK — CNN and other news organizations were blocked Friday from a White House press briefing.

There was no immediate explanation from the White House.

The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico were also excluded from the meeting, known as a gaggle.

The Associated Press and Time magazine boycotted the briefing because of how it was handled. The White House Correspondents Association is protesting.

The conservative media organizations Breitbart News, The Washington Times and One America News Network were allowed in.

Hours earlier, at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, President Trump mocked and disparaged the news media. He said that much of the press represents “the enemy of the people.”

“They are the enemy of the people because they have no sources,” Trump said. “They just make them up when there are none.”

He also said reporters “shouldn’t be allowed” to use unnamed sources.
The Trump White House bars The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, The Hill, the Daily Mail, BBC, Politico, and BuzzFeed from a Friday press "gaggle." Generally conservative, mostly new, outlets were permitted entry, such as Breitbart News, One America News Network, and The Washington Times. Also allowed in were ABC News, CBS News, NBC News, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and Fox News. Time magazine and the Associated Press could have attended but chose not to in protest. The White House Correspondents’ Association, which represents the press corps, quickly rebuked the White House’s actions.