Trump bars BBC, CNN, NYT

We don’t need to do everything on camera, says Spicer

Washington, Feb. 25: The White House excluded several major US news organisations, including some it has criticised, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary on Friday.

Reporters for BBC, CNN, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Guardian and BuzzFeed among others were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer. Mr Spicer’s offcamera briefing, or “gaggle”, replaced the usual televised daily news briefing in the White House briefing room. He did not say why those particular news organisations were excluded. Reuters was included in the session, along with about 10 other news organisations. The decision drew a sharp response from media outlets. Reporters of AP and Time magazine walked out of the briefing upon hearing that others had been barred. — Agencies

Washington, Feb. 25: The White House excluded several major US news organisations, including some it has criticised, from an offcamera briefing held by the White House press secretary on Friday.

Press secretary Sean 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.”

Mr 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 organisations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”

The BBC has asked the White House to clarify its exclusion. Its bureau chief in Washington, Paul Danahar, said, “We understand that there may be occasions when, due to space or circumstances, the White House restricts press events to the established pool. However, what happened today did not fit into that pattern.”

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.

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.” (sic)