Former President Donald Trump was routinely at war with the media. And at times in those skirmishes, Trump’s team blocked reporters from his least favorite outlets from White House events.
The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Guardian, and the BBC were just a few that were temporarily ousted on Trump’s watch. The media, as they perpetually were when Trump was there, were outraged.
In 2018 when Trump banned his archnemesis CNN’s Jim Acosta from the White House, the network claimed Trump’s actions “would create a dangerous chilling effect for any journalist who covers our elected officials.”
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White House Correspondents’ Association President Olivier Knox supported CNN, saying, “The President of the United States should not be in the business of arbitrarily picking the men and women who cover him.”
A year later, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank complained similarly when he was among several longtime White House pros benched by Team Trump. “There’s something wrong with a president having the power to decide which journalists can cover him,” Milbank said.
Now, President Joe Biden is banning reporters. And predictably, the media’s reaction is far different.
Biden banned the New York Post from an event on Monday. He met reporters to discuss a new policy to improve airlines’ on-time performance. The Post was not allowed in even though about 20 of the 50 seats for the event were empty.
The snub came as news emerged that Hunter Biden may be indicted for criminal activity related to his infamous laptop — a story the Post broke in October 2020. It also occurred as House Republicans were set to release a report about Joe Biden’s potential criminal activity connected to Hunter’s shady business deals.
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In response, the White House simply said without explanation that it could not accommodate the Post’s request for a seat, and referred the outlet to the livestream broadcast of the event.
The Post followed that up with a report in which the White House simply said that it was unclear why nearly half the reporters who got credentialed for Biden’s briefing simply didn’t show up. The Post pointed out that the Biden administration excluded two other reporters who both work for TV outlets associated with religious groups.
On Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon reported that Biden’s team had issued new guidelines asserting the right to expel reporters who do not act in a “professional” manner.
The rules also said reporters must list an address in the Washington, D.C., area and hold additional credentials for the Supreme Court or Congress.
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Simon Ateba, a Today News Africa reporter who has locked horns with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over her refusal to take his questions, tweeted that he believed the rules targeted him specifically.
So far, the White House Correspondents Association and most of the major mainstream media have not commented on Biden’s war on the media.
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