‘This Is Not America’: Journalists Trash White House Barring Reporters From Press Gaggle

Reporters and pundits on Twitter reacted immediately and negatively to news Friday that the White House had barred certain organizations from attending a press gaggle, all outlets whose reporting Trump had previously criticized.

Some at CNN & NYT stood w/FOX News when the Obama admin attacked us & tried 2 exclude us-a WH gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs https://t.co/8Vjcs0KCPR

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) February 24, 2017

A big deal: WH now picking and choosing which news outlets can attend Spicer gaggle, preventing CNN, NYT, Politico, Buzzfeed from attending

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 24, 2017

The Trump White House is terrified of tough questions from real reporters. https://t.co/16F3h3Zve1

— Pejman Yousefzadeh (@Yousefzadeh) February 24, 2017

No self-respecting news organization should attend White House Correspondents Dinner after being declared “enemy of the people” and this–> https://t.co/QgkLITumNM

— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) February 24, 2017

this is nuts https://t.co/OUNV66eCCv

— Jared Rizzi (@JaredRizzi) February 24, 2017

And now a test of unity: https://t.co/QwYskT4y4j

— Alex Wagner (@alexwagner) February 24, 2017

To be clear: this is how anti-democratic authoritarian regimes behave.

THIS IS NOT AMERICA. https://t.co/QI5Q6QFqMU

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) February 24, 2017

Dear media, WH is discriminating certain media outlets to distract you from the Russia/interfering with the FBI story. Coño! Stay focused.

— Ana Navarro (@ananavarro) February 24, 2017

NYT Wash buro chief Elisabeth Bumiller to me on gaggle block: “Our most experienced WH reporters have never seen anything like this.”

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) February 24, 2017

Two outlets that were allowed in but boycotted the gaggle — the AP and Time — received praise from fellow journalists.

AP and Time boycotted the gaggle today because of the way it was handled.

— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) February 24, 2017

Congratulations to @AP and @TIME for boycotting today’s White House gaggle in protest of exclusion of other media.

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) February 24, 2017

No one should have attended this while others excluded this way https://t.co/b1kNpgP8st

— Wesley Lowery (@WesleyLowery) February 24, 2017

UPDATE – 3:14 p.m. EST: Several blocked outlets have started responding to the White House’s decision.

[Image via screengrab]

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