Several major news outlets found themselves blocked from attending a Friday White House press briefing with Sean Spicer, the Press Secretary, the latest sign of worsening relations between the Trump administration and the media attempting to cover it.
The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Buzzfeed and Politico were among the news organizations prevented from attending, according to posts by reporters from those outlets on Twitter, as were several foreign news organizations. The Associated Press and Time declined to take part. The White House was said to have invited press organizations to the event.
The three major broadcast networks – CBS, ABC, and NBC – were invited to the briefing, as were several news outlets that play to a conservative readership, such as Breitbart, The Washington Times and One America News Network.
The blocked access was disclosed just hours after President Trump railed against “dishonest” media and use of anonymous sources in stories about his term in the office. “It doesn’t represent the people, it never will represent the people and we’re going to do something about it,” he warned while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. Media outlets including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post have provided a key check on some of the actions the Trump White House has tried to take in recent weeks, posting stories that have revealed infighting among staffers and raised suspicions about General Michael Flynn, the President’s former National Security Adviser who stepped down in the wake of a report he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia in a late December conversation with that country’s ambassador to the United States, despite previously denying it.