Trump Bans Fact-Based News Organizations from Press Briefing

NY Times, LA Times, Politico, and CNN were a few of the credible news sources that Trump's White House banned from today's (closed door) press briefing held by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Due to the treatment of fellow journalists, the Associated Press and Time Magazine decided to boycott the closed door briefing. 

President Trump has been at war with the press since he announced he was running for president. On Friday, he exacerbated his already strained relationship with the press, by ordering his administration to ban legitimate, fact-based news organizations from the private press briefing.

According to the New York Times, the white supremacist sympathizing website Breitbart News was granted entry. But this is unsurprising considering the president's chief advisor (Bannon) previously led the aforementioned neo-Nazi propaganda website.

The White House Correspondents’ Association criticized Trump's White House for the press ban stating, “We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not,” he added. “The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”

Trump campaigned on inaccuracies, lies, and hate. This is one of many campaign promises he is preserving – the perpetuation of fake news fallacies. The White House press corps serves as the eyes and ears of the American people. They have a responsibility to the public. Thus, they are owed a level of deference and respect from the White House so they may do their jobs.

If journalist access to the White House is denied long term, the people must understand that they are responsible for fighting for our government and demand the president uphold his pledge to be transparent and minimize conflict.