The White House barred several media outlets from covering a press gaggle with spokesman Sean Spicer Friday afternoon.
Spicer decided to hold an off-camera meeting with the press inside his West Wing office instead of the traditional on-camera briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room.
Among the outlets barred were news organizations that President Trump has singled out for criticism, including CNN and the New York Times.
The Hill, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, the BBC, the LA Times and the New York Daily News also were kept away.
Time magazine and the Associated Press were staying out in a show of solidarity.
The White House Correspondents’ Association assailed the decision.
“The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today’s gaggle is being handled by the White House,” Jeff Mason, the association’s president, 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,” he added. “The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”
A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump reiterated earlier that the media are the enemy of the American people during his address at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet ripped the decision.
“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.”
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