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Saturday 25 February 2017

White House Bans Certain News Media: The BBC, CNN, The New York Times And Others Were Excluded With No Reason Given.

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The White House has barred several major broadcasters and newspapers from attending an informal press briefing.
The BBC, CNN, the New York Times and others were excluded from an audience with Press Secretary Sean Spicer, with no reason given.
It came hours after President Donald Trump delivered another attack on the media in a speech, saying that "fake news" was the "enemy of the people".
Press briefing room at the White House
He has previously singled out CNN and the New York Times for criticism.
Recent reports claiming his campaign aides had contact with Russian intelligence officials have particularly irked the president.
Shortly after Mr Trump's speech on Friday, a number of selected media organisations were invited into Mr Spicer's office for an informal briefing, or "gaggle".
Those allowed into the room included ABC, Fox News, Breitbart News, Reuters and the Washington Times.
When asked why some were excluded, Mr Spicer said it was his decision to "expand the pool" of reporters.
He also warned the White House was going to "aggressively push back" at "false narratives" in the news.

CNN Communications tweets:
Politico, Buzzfeed and the Daily Mail were also left out, but CNN was the only major US television network to be denied entry.
The Associated Press, USA Today and Time magazine refused to attend as a protest.
The BBC's bureau chief in Washington, Paul Danahar, said the BBC has a representative at every daily White House briefing and it was not clear why they were barred from Friday's session.
New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said it was the first time such an exclusion had happened in the newspaper's history.
A White House spokeswoman said they had invited a group which included all journalists in the press pool, which shares information with other reporters
"We decided to add a couple of additional people beyond the pool. Nothing more than that," Sarah Sanders said.
Fox News anchor tweet
Fox News anchor tweet
An anchor for Fox News, seen as supportive of the Trump presidency, also revealed opposition to the move.
Bret Baier tweeted: "We joined w/all networks in a complaint to WH about the incident."
When asked at the gaggle, Mr Spicer denied CNN and the New York Times had been denied access because the White House was unhappy with their coverage.
But he said: "We are just not going to sit back and let false narratives, false stories, inaccurate facts get out there."
CNN anchor Jake Tapper said the exclusion was "not acceptable, in fact it's petulant. And indicative of a lack of basic understanding of how an adult White House functions".


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