President Trump's less-than-amicable relationship with the press is no secret - but POTUS made an unprecedented move on Friday that seriously has people concerned.
According to the Washington Post, the Trump administration blocked several major news outlets from attending an off-camera press briefing held by Sean Spicer, including CNN, the New York Times, Politico and the Los Angeles Times.
On Twitter, Los Angeles Times reporter Noah Bierman tweeted that media outlets such as Breitbart, One America News Network and The Washington Times (which have all reported positively on the Trump administration), were all allowed into the press briefing, also known as a "gaggle."
Breitbart, OANN, Washington Times are all in White House briefing. CNN and NY Times (and LA Times) not allowed in.
— Noah Bierman (@Noahbierman) February 24, 2017
As Refinery29 points out, controversial White House chief strategist Steve Bannon used to be chairman of Breitbart, which only makes the whole situation look worse.
The Associated Press and Time both boycotted the briefing, and Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents Association, condemmed the selective exclusion.
"The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House,"Mason told Mashable.
Previously, Spicer had promised to never limit media access to the White House, but yesterday's press briefing makes it appear that he's changed his tune - and considering President Trump's recent incessant bashing of organizations like the New York Times as "fake news media," we hate to say we're not surprised.
