Friday, February 24, 2017

Spicy blocks several news agencies, critical of his boss, from attending briefing.

Actual photo of Sean Spicer during this briefing. No, really.
Courtesy of The New York Times: 

Journalists from The New York Times and several other news organizations were prohibited from attending a briefing by President Trump’s press secretary on Friday, a highly unusual breach of relations between the White House and its press corps. 

Reporters from The Times, BuzzFeed News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times and Politico were not allowed to enter the West Wing office of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer, for the scheduled briefing. Aides to Mr. Spicer only allowed in reporters from a handpicked group of news organizations that, the White House said, had been previously confirmed. 

Those organizations included Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings. Journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News also attended. 

Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in, chose not to attend the briefing in protest of the White House’s actions. 

“Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties,” Dean Baquet, the executive editor of The 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.”

You know this isn't a campaign event where a candidate might want to keep certain critical new outlets out of the loop. This is a freaking White House briefing.

And isn't it interesting that it seems to be the organizations who have really done the most work on the Russia/Trump connection that are being blocked?

This is essentially the Trump administration showing their cowardice and that they are terrified of what the free press will reveal next about them.

So much for Donald Trump's supposed tough guy credibility.

At least one organization that WAS allowed into the briefing voiced outrage:

"The Wall Street Journal strongly objects to the White House's decision to bar certain media outlets from today's gaggle," a Journal spokesman said. "Had we known at the time, we would not have participated and we will not participate in such closed briefings in the future."

You know it is getting hard to tell if Sean Spicer is becoming more and more like the caricature of him played by Melissa McCarthy on SNL, or if he was this way from the beginning, and it is only becoming more obvious.

Yeah, I'm stumped.

25 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:53 PM

    MSNBC showed President Obama coming out of a building in New York City and the spectators on the sidewalk lost their minds screaming for him. I would have lost my mind too. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are one of a kind and are dearly missed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:53 PM

      I watched the reaction to President Obama today and have to tell you that I was tickled to see him too!!

      God, is he missed! The USA is in deplorable shape led by the devil incarnate, the man/boy Trump.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:21 PM

      I really really miss them too. Oh how I wish we had anyone but don. He is so toxic. Everyone has new gray hairs and ulcers. don is ugly and sounds like a garbage disposal.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:09 AM

      Anon 6:21. More like a garbage dispenser.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous5:10 AM

      the crowd that was standing just to see Obama was bigly, lol.. larger than cpac crowd for pussy grabber..
      and they were not paid, and had authentic joy for a real president not a SO CALLED fake president..
      russian traitor..agent rotten orange..cpac was occupied by Russian flag wavers, pedophiles and neo-nazi's..what a class act..NOT.lol.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous6:13 AM

      I feel so much better just knowing that President Obama is home now from his well-earned vacation. He's been the "adult in the room" since January 20, 2009, and we need him now more than ever.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  2. Anonymous4:56 PM

    Do you know if the Russian news agency was on the VIP list?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4:57 PM

    OT- THIS IS A BIG FUCKING DEAL!

    Trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials, key lawmakers to counter Russia stories


    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-sought-to-enlist-intelligence-officials-key-lawmakers-to-counter-russia-stories/2017/02/24/c8487552-fa99-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.8070f031a92a

    " By Greg Miller and Adam Entous February 24 at 8:47 PM

    The Trump administration has enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia, a politically charged issue that has been under investigation by the FBI as well as lawmakers now defending the White House.

    Acting at the behest of the White House, the officials made calls to news organizations last week in attempts to challenge stories about alleged contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, U.S. officials said.

    The calls were orchestrated by the White House after unsuccessful attempts by the administration to get senior FBI officials to speak with news organizations and dispute the accuracy of stories on the alleged contacts with Russia."

    More at the link!

    THIS IS A REALLY BIG FUCKING DEAL!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Don't miss Maddow tonight!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6:33 PM

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/bloomberg-scrubs-white-house-correspondents-223536821.html?.tsrc=jtc_news_index

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous6:53 PM

    If asshole Trump thinks we the people are going to sit by and stand for this than he is dumber than we think.

    We will not accept this as the norm. We will not be told we are not "Real Americans" if we don't support this ass. We are America. We still stand for what is right. One idiot President can undo or try to everything we stand for.

    It is not acceptable that we have a so called First Lady who only shows up for photo ops at Mar A Lago on the weekends. It is not acceptable that we have the Presidents daughter sit in on meetings when she was not elected to anything and has no business being there.

    It is not acceptable that the President makes money by having our Government paying for secret service to stay at his "Winter White house".

    It is not acceptable for New York to have to pay the tab of 500,000 a day because Melania Trump thinks the White House is beneath her ass.

    Can you imagine the bitching that the Rebublicans would have done if Mrs. Obama had pulled a stunt like this?

    This is our money paying for this crap! And we should not accept it.

    We will be in your face Trump every single day, we will march every single weekend and if we cant be there to protest we can still call you out on blogs like this or comments on articles by the media you want to suppress.We are not going away, not now, not ever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:37 AM

      Did you happen to see and hear the steve bannon alt threat yesterday? He said "you will not get your country back without a fight" In other words he thinks he owns America and we will have to fight him and his alt bullies to take back our country.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:10 AM

      I guess it really is President Bannon now. I can't wait for some reporter to ask Trump a question about "President Bannon."
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  7. Anonymous7:08 PM

    And now for your enjoyment. Remember what our standards were.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-appearance-york-city-causes-172458523.html

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous7:12 PM

    He also barred most of FOREIGN media! Unheard of!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous7:23 PM

    Shannyn Moore!

    https://twitter.com/digby56/status/835319870816296960

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous8:10 PM

    You have to remember that their is srength in numbers. It's too easy to sit by, it's too easy to sit by and watch.

    Anyone with half a brain is concerned about an unstable moron as President we can only hope that better brains will prevail in our government.

    How dumb we look to the rest of the world. While other world leaders are taking care of business we have the twitter in chief butt hurt about bad press and golfing and bragging like some teen. This is beyond the pale.

    He divides, he incites division well he got it. We will kick his ass out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:49 AM

      Other countries share and feel our pain. They too are affected and have been raided too with alt elections and nasty dirty people attempting to take over their country. Globally we are all in together and we will remove this Alt group of criminals and jail them.

      Delete
  11. Anonymous8:25 PM

    Trump calls out the media and bans them for lying, yet Hallie Jackson reported from the CPAC site that, contrary to trump's claim during his speech, there were no people waiting outside to get into the room he was in. He said there were 6000 people who couldn't get inside.

    In contrast, Rep. Adam Schiff had a huge town hall turnout and his spillover room was pretty damn full.


    http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-rep-adam-schiff-hosts-packed-town-hall-1487999360-htmlstory.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous4:32 AM

      President Obama had large crowd in NY just wanting to see him again. America misses Our 44th President and First Family.

      Delete
  12. Donald Trump is the biggest snowflake ever. Not even close.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous4:20 AM

    When I turn the computer on in the morning, the first thing I see is the front page of the Washington Post. Each day the headline stories, and they're all about the Trump administration, are crazier that the day before. This morning there's the enlistment of top intelligence officials to help cover up the Russia connection scandal and the slamming of doors by Trump. How can the beautiful White House have been turned into such mayhem in little over a month? It is sickening.
    Beaglemom

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous4:26 AM

    Paid to lie to Americans? Deny truth and facts? Alt reality? Does spicer have children? Where did he grow up? The beginning of the end of a career and professional suicide. Him and those like him are seriously in trouble. Way to go Republicans!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous4:43 AM

    Notice some ethical adults around trump have actually been sent out to government and create calm. But dence pence is mildly sly and shifty eyed still promoting stupid knowing full well what harm he is doing to America and being a part of. This is as bad as his alt boss.

    ReplyDelete

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