Washington: By the measure of his spokesman Sean Spicer, Donald Trump is tracking towards dictatorship – how else to explain Spicer barring "enemy" reporters from a White House media briefing, just weeks after he said open media access was "what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship".
The unprecedented exclusion of CNN and The New York Times, among others, marked an escalation in Trump's war on the media and on a particular government agency that has provided sensational leaks on his presidency – the FBI.
More World News Videos
- Video duration
- 01:27
Trump says he's against 'fake' press, not ...
Trump says he's against 'fake' press, not the media
President Trump said to a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday that he's not against the media, but he is against the 'fake' press.
Up Next
Sweden culture wars
- Video duration
- 01:12
- Video duration
- 01:12
Sweden culture wars
Sweden culture wars
Sweden has suddenly become a proxy battleground in the culture wars. Europe correspondent Nick Miller reports from Malmo, Sweden.
Up Next
Melbourne woman mourns partner killed with pool cue
- Video duration
- 00:49
- Video duration
- 00:49
Melbourne woman mourns partner killed ...
Melbourne woman mourns partner killed with pool cue
He was the love of her life - 'best friend and soul mate' - and he was brutally murdered with a pool cue after trying to break up a fight in a South African bar.
Up Next
Pope 'better to be atheist than hypocritical Catholic'
- Video duration
- 01:05
- Video duration
- 01:05
Pope 'better to be atheist than ...
Pope 'better to be atheist than hypocritical Catholic'
Pope Francis criticises 'double life' led by some members of his own church.
Up Next
Kenya's Ghetto Classics Orchestra
- Video duration
- 01:07
- Video duration
- 01:07
Kenya's Ghetto Classics Orchestra
Kenya's Ghetto Classics Orchestra
Every Sunday, the Ghetto Classics Orchestra plays in Korogocho, a crowded Nairobi slum. For a few hours, dozens of children leave their difficult world behind and become one with the music.
Up Next
Trump vows military build-up
- Video duration
- 01:23
- Video duration
- 01:23
Trump vows military build-up
Trump vows military build-up
US President Donald Trump said he would make a massive budget request for one of the 'greatest military buildups in American history' in a feisty, campaign-style speech at CPAC on Friday.
Up Next
Like Brexit, Trump will become 'more popular': Farage
- Video duration
- 01:20
- Video duration
- 01:20
Like Brexit, Trump will become 'more ...
Like Brexit, Trump will become 'more popular': Farage
'Just as Brexit becomes more popular by the day, President Trump will become more popular in America by the day,' says leading Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage who spoke at CPAC of a 'great global revolution' on Friday.
Up Next
Caitlyn Jenner's message to Trump
- Video duration
- 00:47
- Video duration
- 00:47
Caitlyn Jenner's message to Trump
Caitlyn Jenner's message to Trump
Olympic gold medalist and transgender activist Caitlyn Jenner appeals to US President Donald Trump on transgender rights on Thursday.
Trump says he's against 'fake' press, not the media
President Trump said to a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday that he's not against the media, but he is against the 'fake' press.
On a day when the White House press office was corralling reporters on the basis of who were friends and who were not, Trump resorted to Twitter to slam the FBI and to issue what seemed like a presidential order for the agency to silence the media's secret sources in its ranks.
Fired off in two bites, Trump's tweeted reprimand read: "The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security 'leakers' that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even find the leakers within the FBI itself.
Related Content
"Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on US. FIND NOW."
Also excluded from the Friday briefing were the Los Angeles Times, Politico, the BBC, Huffington Post and BuzzFeed News.
CNN's Sara Murray said:
"We lined up. We were told there was a list ahead of time, which is sort of abnormal, but we put our name on a list. And then when we went to enter, I was blocked by a White House staffer, who said we were not on the list for … today."
Those who were welcomed in included conservative outlets Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, along with journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News.
We've been here before. During the 2016 campaign, Trump regularly banned the media he didn't like from covering his rallies and as President he's been winding himself up, with a barrage of attacks on media credibility.
Now with thousands of conservatives in Washington for the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the administration has gone to the mattresses.
It was the campaign punishment routine that prompted the Spicer discourse on dictatorship in December, before the Trump inauguration and before Spicer had been tapped to be the presidential spokesman.
At a media forum, Politico reporter Jake Sherman asked how a Trump White House would treat the news outlets it didn't like.
"Look, there's a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity," Spicer answered. "I think we have a respect for the press when it comes to the government. That is something you can't ban an entity from."
"Conservative, liberal or otherwise…that's what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship. I think there is a vastly different model when it comes to government and what should be expected, and that's on both sides."
Spicer had nailed himself in advance.
A former GOP presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer threw up his hands: "The problem for Spicer is that he already clearly articulated his views on excluding media outlets from access at the White House. Since it's a publicly funded operation, it shouldn't happen."
As the tempo of the media war rises, the unthinkable becomes possible.
The White House is playing with fire. It was instructive that several news organisations approved to attend the Spicer briefing – Time magazine and the Associated Press – protested by not attending unless all media were welcome. And The Wall Street Journal , pleading it was not aware of the exclusions, said it would not attend future briefings from which others were excluded.
The risk in continuing down this road is that Trump and Spicer may end up with a briefing room full of patsies.
Leaks cut both ways
The leaks are driving Trump mad. But "sad!" to know, as the President would say, leaking and anonymous sourcing cuts both ways.
CNN is reporting Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus has been gnawing at the FBI bosses, pleading for them to anonymously brief reporters to push back The New York Times and CNN's recent reports on the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian intelligence officials.
And the Homeland Security officials who briefed reporters this week on Trump's migrant crackdown have insisted on anonymity.
On Thursday Trump's chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, used CPAC to rail against the media, and on Friday Trump was the main act, using the first 10 minutes of his speech for a rerun of his claim that "fake news" organisations are the "enemy of the people".
"They are very smart, they are very cunning, they are very dishonest," Trump told Delegates packed into a convention centre near Washington. "It doesn't represent the people; it never will represent the people."
Demanding the media cease quoting unnamed sources, he said: "A few days ago, I called the fake news the enemy of the people because they have no sources; they just make it up." Lest he was misunderstood, Trump declared that criticism "doesn't bother me".
But this is all very confusing, because during last year's campaign Candidate Trump regularly did no-name, background briefings for reporters; and in the past, he was known to call the New York tabloids, posing as his own PR agent, to plant stories about himself.
The administration's acknowledgement that Priebus had discussed what the FBI knew about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russians prompted protests by former FBI agents.
"The White House appears to have violated accepted protocols and procedures," former special agent Ali Soufan told The Guardian.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, who sits on the Senate intelligence committee which, like the FBI, is investigating Trump's ties to Russia, told reporters: "If, as Priebus claimed, the FBI not only discussed this issue with the White House but co-ordinated the White House's public statements, the American people would also have reason to doubt the impartiality both of the Bureau and the Department of Justice to which the FBI is responsible. These claims deserve further investigation."
Reports say that despite dismissing the substance of The New York Times' February 14 report, the FBI resisted Priebus' requests for the agency to make a public statement to that effect. That prompted a request by Priebus to quote anonymous senior intelligence officials in rebutting the Times report, which FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe apparently OK'd.
0 comments
New User? Sign up