On Friday, the White House took the unprecedented act of barring The New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC and several other news organizations from an off-camera briefing known as a gaggle. Meanwhile, several right-wing news outlets were allowed to attend, including Breitbart, The Washington Times and One America News Network. Just hours earlier, Trump repeatedly attacked the media, describing it as an “enemy of the people.” Then, on Saturday, Donald Trump announced he would not attend this year’s White House correspondents’ dinner. The last president to skip the dinner was Ronald Reagan in 1981. At the time, Reagan was recovering from an assassination attempt. We speak to Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
JUAN GONZĂLEZ: We turn now to look at the Trump administration and press freedom. On Friday, the White House took the unprecedented act of barring The New York Times, CNN, Politico, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC, and several other news organizations from an off-camera briefing known as a gaggle. Meanwhile, several right-wing news outlets were allowed to attend, including Breitbart, The Washington Times and One America News Network. New York Times editor Dean Baquet said, quote, “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties.”
AMY GOODMAN: Washington Post editor Marty Baron described the White House’s decision as “appalling,” saying the Trump administration is on, quote, “an undemocratic path.”
Interestingly, even White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer spoke out against banning news outlets from press briefings — well, that was two months ago. In December, Spicer said, quote, “We have a respect for the press when it comes to the government, that that is something you can’t ban an entity from. I think that is what makes a democracy a democracy…