WHITE HOUSE BLOCKS NEWS OUTLETS

WASHINGTON: Several news outlets were blocked from attending an off-camera White House press briefing that other reporters were hand-picked to attend, resulting in outrage among media organisations. CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed, the BBC and Guardian were excluded from the meeting, which was held on Friday 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 “Question and Answer” session in the White House briefing room. When reporters from these news organisations tried to enter Spicer’s office, they were told they could not attend because they were not on the list of attendees.