New York Times, CNN and other media barred from White House press event

No, they are flat denying they removed anyone from the press pool.

6 Likes

That gives Jeffrey Combs an idea…

9 Likes

My reading was that they’re saying they invited the press pool (the combined group that multiple organizations can pull from), and decided to “add a few other” individual ones on top of it.

CNN, etc aren’t specifically represented by the press pool (though the pool is set up so they can pull information from them). Since they weren’t included in the additional news orgs that were invited, they weren’t able to come. So they weren’t banned, just not invited.

Yes, he does. This is typical for those with Cluster B personality disorders. Anyone who questions or challenges them becomes their punching bag, to be punished over and over until they learn the error of their ways. One of their favorite ways to do this is via psychological projection, which handily doubles as a form of gaslighting. I’m not a liar, you are! I’m not a failure, you are! Sad!

I’m not a mental health professional, and this is not a diagnosis, just my humble opinion.

6 Likes

And during every day of every year.

Not just under autocracies; this has always been the rule in D.C. WH press conferences have always been barely 5% more hardball than a Charlie Rose interview.

6 Likes

I’d like to see CNN et al refuse to broadcast or report on any Trump administration press conferences from here on.

6 Likes

Bush did a number on Helen Thomas when she started pressing the admin., though he moved her to the back row and basically stopped acknowledging her existence. This is far more serious by many orders of magnitude, though.

15 Likes

http://imgur.com/TWwXvMN

5 Likes

It won’t embed here, but here’s a C-Span clip from December of Sean Spicer talking about Trump’s relationship with the press. At around 36:00 he’s asked if Trump will ban media outlets from his press conferences, and he says no, he won’t, “that’s what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”

28 Likes

Either Jenner voted for anybody-but-Hillary or she didn’t vote at all, but either way, some of this is on her shoulders. She should be ashamed of herself, but I suspect that like the rest of that clan, she’s incapable of feeling shame.

8 Likes

… or by comparing the current situation to a warzone.

Sure, the press should have done more - a lot more - in the run up to the war. But once the tracks crossed the border I have no problem with the embed process. And, again, reporters that were not embedded had their free rein to go and do as they pleased.

Now, it might be argued that perhaps the embed restrictions were carried on too long. That’s a sliding scale that I’d be happy to debate regarding where or when the process should have ended, but making that argument would be de facto acknowledging the legitimacy of the embed process.

1 Like

That’s the problem, though. He does this all the time: he says something that goes against party lines or that sure sounds good to a lot of us. But in the end it’s all talk with no action. For his entire political career, I’ve never seen these words translate into action when it actually counted. As an example, for all the criticism he’s given to Trump and his cabinet nominees he didn’t oppose a single one of them when it was time for confirmation votes.

He’s just a big Concern trolley as far as I’m concerned.

14 Likes

lol, that’s so cute!

4 Likes

According to the Washington Post they blocked cameras, too. I guess they’re getting tired of having video evidence of “alternative facts” floating around?

14 Likes

IMO Time and the AP should have sent representatives … people skilled in stenography, who could record exactly what “Melissa” Spicer said in shorthand and provide a transcript to CNN, the New York Times, and the other excluded groups. As Ben Franklin is supposed to have said:

10 Likes

Dear White House: “If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear”

14 Likes

Who needs those fancy high faluting rags when he can have the only newspapers he reads anyway?

10 Likes

Thing is, that’s probably something Trump wants.

Does anyone remember this episode of This American Life? In it a group of school kids on a field trip to the Nixon Library are indoctrinated into a dislike of a free press.

2 Likes

The orange clown needs to show his taxes. How else can we tell if there is a conflict of interest with his businesses?

2 Likes