By excluding a number of the country’s largest news outlets from the day’s official White House briefing in favor of friendlier media, Trump administration spokesman Sean Spicer ratcheted up the White House’s war on the free press Friday to a new level. And the White House argues that by opening the room to a few extra reporters, it was expanding access, not narrowing it. (Sample quote: “We are fighting fake news.”)So what message was the administration sending when Spicer put a velvet rope up outside his office? What could possibly be the rationale for excluding selected White House reporters from an on-the-record session with the White House spokesman in the White House? It also evokes memories of that most famous White House compiler of an enemies list, Richard Nixon — probably not the president whose footsteps Trump wants to follow.

Source: Los Angeles Times February 24, 2017 23:58 UTC