In the polarized, political hot bed many seem to be lying in, the following story got the attention of many this weekend. As reported by Reuters:
“The White House excluded several major U.S. news organizations, including some it has openly criticized, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary on Friday, representatives of the organizations said.
Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer.
Spicer’s off-camera briefing, or ‘gaggle,’ replaced the usual televised daily news briefing on Friday in the White House briefing room. He did not say why those particular news organizations were excluded, a decision which drew strong protests…
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 organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.’ “
The intentional omission of the press has troubling First Amendment implications. I feel that today. I felt it also in 2009…
As reported by Judicial Watch, eight years ago:
“Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it has uncovered documents from the Obama Department of Treasury showing that the Obama administration, contrary to its repeated denials, attempted to exclude the Fox News Channel (FNC) from a round of interviews with Treasury’s ‘Executive Pay Czar’ Kenneth Feinberg. The documents, which include email exchanges within the Department of the Treasury and between Treasury and White House staff, also provide colorful evidence of an anti-Fox News bias within the Obama White House.
The documents, obtained last week by Judicial Watch pursuant to an October, 28, 2009, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, concern a series of interviews with Feinberg, who served as the Special Master for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Executive Compensation, on October 22, 2009, organized by the Treasury Department. According to press reports, the Fox News Channel was specifically excluded from joining the pool of reporters which precipitated a backlash among the networks and a reversal by the Obama Treasury Department…
Regarding general anti-FNC bias within the Obama White House in an October 23, 2009, email exchange between Jennifer Psaki, Deputy White House Communications Director and [Asst. Sec. for Public Affairs in the Treas. Dept., Jenni] LeCompte, Psaki writes, ‘I am putting some dead fish in the fox cubby – just cause’. In an email on the night of October 22, 2009, commenting on a report by Fox News Channel anchor Bret Baier noting the exclusion of the network from the pool, Psaki writes to LeCompte and fellow White House colleagues, ‘…brett baier just did a stupid piece on it — but he is a lunatic’.
Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest bluntly described the White House’s position on Fox News Channel in an October 23, 2009, email to LeCompte: ‘We’ve demonstrated our willingness and ability to exclude Fox News from significant interviews…’”
Personally, with all due respect, I believe the press should have equal access to our government officials, regardless of proven or perceived bias. I also believe our outrage (or lack of it) should be equal, regardless of administration.
Respectfully…
AR