NY Post Reporter Goes OFF on Karine Jean-Pierre Ignoring Him: ‘Contempt For a Free and Independent Press!’

New York Post reporter Steve Nelson erupted at press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for not calling on him at Wednesday’s White House press briefing.

“You haven’t called on me in two seasons, Karine,” Nelson claimed after Jean-Pierre skipped over him to take a question from another reporter.

“I’m not calling on you today,” she retorted before pointing at the other reporter and telling them to “go ahead” with their question.

“You should be ashamed of that!” Nelson said, as she continued to point and say, “go ahead, go ahead.”

“That shows disrespect to a free and independent media! It’s blacklisting one of the nation’s largest and most-read newspapers, Karine,” he continued. “That shows contempt for a free and independent press!”

“Go ahead,” Jean-Pierre said, ignoring Nelson. “I’m calling on somebody I haven’t called on in a long time, as well,” she said, and Nelson finally relented.

After the briefing, Nelson tweeted, “The @NYPost is our country’s oldest daily newspaper. We have 4th-largest print circulation and only NY Times has more web traffic. @PressSec last called on me in May, and on a colleague in July. The May exchange was also about press freedom issues.”

Nelson’s reporting for the Post has been particularly critical of the Biden administration in recent months, but Jean-Pierre didn’t give a reason for skipping over him.

Nelson isn’t the only reporter to complain that Jean-Pierre repeatedly ignored him. In June, Today News Africa correspondent Simon Ateba accused Jean-Pierre of “discrimination” for refusing to answer him.

Mediaite’s Ken Meyer reported on that incident:

Ateba was heard speaking over Jean-Pierre, claiming she has “discriminated against me for the past nine months.” This prompted another reporter to demand that Ateba explain, “how is she discriminating against you?” Jean-Pierre attempted to move on, but as the fight continued, she warned that the briefing would end if this kept going.

“You’re being incredibly rude,” Jean-Pierre told Ateba, accusing him talking over his fellow reporters.

Ateba has repeatedly disrupted briefings with his antics in the past. He has also claimed before that the White House is prejudiced against him.

Ateba tweeted in July that he received an official letter threatening to take away his press pass.

Watch the clip above via C-Span.

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