Trump Clown Show Wrote:
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>
http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/19/media/white-house-
> press-briefing-donald-trump-media/
>
> The White House press briefing has seen better
> days. Lately, in fact, the briefing is often not
> seen at all.
>
> For four days last week, representatives for
> President Trump skipped the usual on-camera
> briefing to take questions off-camera. This wasn't
> the first time the White House had taken this
> step, but this month has brought an added twist.
>
>
In response to networks like CNN that decided
> to broadcast audio of the briefing, even without a
> visual to accompany, the White House barred
> attendees from doing that, too. Monday's
> briefing -- the White House termed it a "gaggle,"
> a more informal set-up, though it took place in a
> format much like a briefing -- was likewise
> off-camera,
with audio broadcasting
> forbidden.
That's because they're supposed to be informal briefings which while on the reord generally weren't recorded to begin with. lol
And nothing new in doing things this way...
Obama WH Held Private Briefings, Too
BY: JOSEPH CURL FEBRUARY 26, 2017
A buzz broke out across Washington last week when the White House held a briefing for a select group of reporters while excluding others.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spice was scheduled to hold his daily briefing on Friday, but canceled it and instead held an off-camera briefing for invited reporters. The miffed press corps immediately dubbed the briefing a "gaggle," which in administrations past has been an informal gathering, on the record but off camera, often held in the press secretary's West Wing office.
The media went bats. “Selectively denying access to a previously open White House channel of information reflects an unprecedented and perilous vindictiveness that has no place in American democracy,” said Arthur Browne, editor in chief of the Daily News, which didn't get invited.
The White House Correspondents’ Association complained. "The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House. We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not. The board will be discussing this further with White House staff," WHCA president Jeff Mason said in a statement.
But really, administrations have for years and years held briefings for select news outlets, snubbing others. While the press corps sought to label Friday's briefing a "gaggle," it was really just a private briefing for invited reporters.
I covered the White House for 15 years and I was invited to plenty of private briefings -- and left out of plenty more. Sometimes the president would have us up to the residence -- not the 49 ageincies that have seats in the briefing room, but just six or eight reporters. Some days I'd wake up, read the New York Times or Washington Post, and see a line that said something like, "A White House official said in a briefing with reporters." Only then would I know that such a briefing took place, and yes, I was never happy.
But it happened in administrations both Republican and Democratic. Officials in the George W. Bush White House would sometimes hold such briefings, as did the Clinton and Obama White Houses. I don't remember the WHCA ever filing complaints over my broken heart -- but now that liberal outlets are being left out, the group, best known for the lavish dinner it holds each year, is furious.
"Senior White House reporters said they'd never seen another presidential administration make this move. But Trump did the same thing on the campaign trail, barring outlets he deemed hostile like Politico, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post and the Des Moines Register from getting press credentials," the Daily News said.
But that's just not true. Has an administration ever held reporters out of a "gaggle"? Not that I know of. But have administrations ever had private gatherings for invited reporters only? All the time. They have, and will continue to have, such briefings. (also, Obama once banned three newspapers from his campaign plane because he didn't like their reporting.)
CNN called the latest incident "an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don't like."
And New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet said, “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.”
But this is niggling over semantics -- was it a private briefing, or a "gaggle"?
In the end, it was really just President Trump once again controlling the topic of the day: The media, which loves themselves more than anything else -- went nuts when reports of the briefing emerged. Once again, well played.