The White House has taken the next step in its war against the media, by blocking journalists from some of the biggest news outlets from the daily press briefing on Friday. Reporters from the New York Times, CNN, Buzzfeed, the Los Angeles Times, and Politico, all of which have published critical pieces about Donald Trump, were stopped from entering the press briefing.

The only news outlets that were allowed in had been confirmed previously, the White House said, and included right leaning Breitbart News, the One America News Network, the Washington Times, and Fox News. ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg were also allowed in. The briefing was also changed from an on-camera event to an off-camera gaggle.

This marks an unusual and brusque new approach to the Executive Branch’s relationship with the media. Journalists from Time and the Associated Press chose to not attend in solidarity, even though they were allowed in.

The executive editor of the NY Times Dean Baquet condemned the White House’s move in a statement:

Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. 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.

Naturally the announcement by Spicer caused an uproar.

AP and Time boycotted the gaggle today because of the way it was handled.

— Adrian Carrasquillo (@Carrasquillo) February 24, 2017

Here’s CNN’s response:

CNN was blocked from WH @PressSec‘s media gaggle today. This is our response: pic.twitter.com/8SfY2uYKEI

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) February 24, 2017

And many reporters showed solidarity with each other and pointed out that no matter political difference of opinions, government press briefings should be open to all.

Some at CNN & NYT stood w/FOX News when the Obama admin attacked us & tried 2 exclude us-a WH gaggle should be open to all credentialed orgs https://t.co/8Vjcs0KCPR

— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) February 24, 2017

Numerous White House reporters have split up the duties of transcribing the Spicer gaggle to share with their colleagues who were excluded.

— Byron Tau (@ByronTau) February 24, 2017

The move to shut some reporters out came just hours after President Trump’s speech at the CPAC, where he said that the media is “the enemy of the people.” He said reporters shouldn’t be allowed to have anonymous sources, and claimed they just make information up. “We’re going to do something about it,” he said.

The White House Correspondents Association disapproved of the White House’s actions. “We encourage the organizations that were allowed in to share the material with others in the press corps who were not,” the organization said in a statement. “The board will be discussing this further with White House staff.”

Some analysts believe the president is doing all he can to discredit the media and shake people’s trust in it, since it is one of the biggest treats to his presidency. “By hammering reporters as dishonest purveyors of fake news, Trump simultaneously rallies his fans and lays the groundwork for dismissing fair-minded journalism as the work of partisan hacks,” said Peter Slevin, an associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to believe the rumors and repeat Trump’s cry of “fake news.” But that won’t stop journalists from doing their jobs.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Donald Trump has many talents: amassing large sums of money, ostensibly writing checks to charities, and provoking confrontations with the media. On Tuesday, at Trump Tower in New York, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee managed to show off all three of those skills in a 40-minute televised speech.

Trump said that he raised $5.6 million during a fundraiser for veterans held in January. He also rattled off the names of the charities that were presented donations from that chunk of change, after he received pressure from the media to reveal where the money raised ended up going. And he also responded to that pressure, spending a bulk of the speech deriding the media as being “unbelievably dishonest” and singling out ABC News’s Tom Llamas as a “sleaze.”

“But what I don’t want is when I raise millions of dollars, have people say, like this sleazy guy right over here from ABC,” Trump said, skirting eye contact with Llamas, but aggressively pointing at him while squinting into the cameras. “He’s a sleaze in my book. You’re a sleaze because you know the facts and you know the facts well.”

The speech was a response to mounting pressure from the press about the particulars of the veterans’ fundraiser, which Trump held in lieu of attending a Fox News debate. The reporters’ questions were simple: how much money was raised, and to whom was it donated?

The confusion about the amount of money that was raised stemmed from contradictory statements by Trump and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. Trump initially announced the event’s haul as being $6 million; Lewandowski told The Washington Post it was $4.5 million. On Tuesday, the real estate mogul cleared up the foggy figure, pinpointing the amount raised as $5.6 million and rising.

He explained the lengthy donation process as a result of making sure the charities poised to receive donations were properly vetted. All of the checks have been sent, he said, save for one to the Project for Patriots, a veteran housing group based in Sioux City, Iowa.

The largest of Trump’s contributions was made to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation for a purported amount of $1.1 million. A representative told Law Street: “Mr. Trump sent us a check last week for a million dollars.”

Whether that check was signed and sent amid the increased media attention thrust on the issue or after a drawn out vetting process is unclear. But Trump prefers his donations to fly under the radar, a shockingly different philosophy than how he has run his presidential campaign thus far: “I could have asked all these groups to come here and I didn’t want to do that. I’m not looking for credit.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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ICYMI, here are Law Street’s top stories of the week. The number one story involves Ellen Page and Ted Cruz battling over gay rights in Iowa. The number two story covered two reporters who were shot by a disgruntled former coworker in Virginia. Finally, number three involved Kanye West’s declaration of presidency for 2020. Check out all three below:

#1 Ted Cruz vs. Ellen Page: Argument Over Religious Freedom and LGBTQ Rights

Republican Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz got into a back-and-forth with actress and LGBTQ rights advocate Ellen Page on Friday. She confronted him at a barbecue he was hosting before a religious freedom rally in Iowa as part of a show she’s working on with Vice. Page was clad in a hat and oversize sunglasses, so Cruz clearly didn’t recognize her as the actress who starred in hits like “Inception” and “Juno.” Read the full story here.

#2 Disgruntled Employee Kills Virginia Reporter and Cameraman on Live TV

A television reporter and cameraman were shot dead during a live news broadcast for WDBJ-TV, a Roanoke-Lynchburg CBS affiliate, this morning in Moneta, Virginia. Alison Parker, 24, and photojournalist Adam Ward, 27 were in the middle of filming a segment on tourism at the Bridgewater Plaza when several shots rang out at 6:45 am. Read the full story here.

#3 Is Kanye West Really Running for President?

Last night’s MTV Video Music Awards went much like you’d expect. Miley attempted to shock viewers with nipple skimming outfits and weed references, none of the jokes were funny, Taylor Swift won most of the awards, and Kanye managed to steal the show–but this time without stealing a mic from Swift. During a bizarre 11-minute-long acceptance speech for the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, Yeezy talked about everything from how fatherhood changed him to fighting for artists…and a possible presidential run in 2020? Read the full story here.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Journalism can be an incredibly dangerous field. Last year 61 journalists were killed while covering topics such as war, crime, human rights, and politics. Everyday, journalists put themselves in danger to get the hard truth so that people can be informed of what is occurring in our world. As a result, campaigns such as A Day Without News were created to draw attention to the importance of journalism and those journalists that risk their lives on a daily basis.

The Newseum in Washington, DC put on a ceremony this morning recognizing 14 journalists who have died covering the news in 2014. For the first time in the Newseum’s history, no newspapers will be displayed in the “Today’s Front Pages” exhibit inside or outside of the building, or on its website. Instead, there are blacked-out pages featuring the hashtag #WithoutNews.

A world #WithoutNews would also leave us without knowledge, insight, and an understanding of how we are cogs in a greater machine @Newseum

— Kamahl Santamaria (@KamahlAJE) June 8, 2015

These 14 journalists have been selected to represent those who died in 2014, and will be placed among the other names on the memorial for fallen journalists. The “Today’s Front Pages” exhibit reaches more than 800,000 people who visit the Newseum annually. Through the museum’s website and mobile app, more than three million users visit “Today’s Front Pages” online every year. Displaying blacked-out front pages is a smart way to attract people’s attention and raise awareness of the increasing dangers of journalism. Peter S. Pritchard, chairman and CEO of the Newseum stated:

Part of our mission is to educate people about growing threats to journalists around the world. These blacked-out front pages vividly demonstrate what it means when journalists are murdered or kidnapped — we receive no news from some regions of the world. We hope the #WithoutNews campaign will encourage people to think about where news comes from, and to remember the brave men and women who often risk their lives to report it.

Newseum ceremony. Image courtesy of Angel Idowu.

One of these featured journalists is Michael Du Cille, a photojournalist for the Washington Post. Featured in the ceremony was a short summary honoring his life and work:

Despite the risks, Washington Post photographer Michael du Cille made three trips to Liberia in four months to photograph victims of the deadly Ebola virus. While hiking back from a remote village, du Cille collapsed from an apparent heart attack and was transported two hours across dirt roads to a hospital, where he was declared dead. He was 58. A three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his powerful images, du Cille became the Post’s director of photography in 2007. But his passion for reporting drew him back into the field to cover dangerous assignments such as the war in Afghanistan, where he came under fire in 2013. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people.

The atmosphere was heavy, but I had the opportunity to speak with colleagues who worked with du Cille and spoke about the difference he worked to make.

“Michael was was so incredibly inspiring,” said Sari Horwitz, a staff writer for the Washington Post. “He was so dedicated to the work, it’s so sad to see a person so passionate about their work gone.”

It was easy to feel surprise and frustration for the lack of attention this campaign seemed to be receiving from the media, in comparison to the influx of other topics in the news, such as celebrity gossip.

Horowitz’s comments echoed that frustration, claiming Du Cille and all of the other fallen journalists  were the true heroes. She stated:

What’s so crazy about this is that these are the true heroes, and no one even knows their name. They sacrifice their lives every day to get the story out, but it’s still so sad to see his name be added to the list of fallen journalists here in the Newsuem.

The other thirteen journalists that were honored at today’s event include: Yusuf Ahmed Abukar of Radio Ergo and Mustaqbal Radio who died in Somalia; Muftah Bu Zeid of Brnieq who died in Libya; Simone Camilli of the Associated Press who died in Israel; James Foley, a freelancer who died in Syria; Rubylita Garcia of Remate and dwAD who died in the Philippines; Nils Horner of Sveriges Radio who died in Afghanistan; Camille Lepage, a freelancer who died in the Central Africa Republic; Irshad Mastoi of Online International News Network and ARY News who died in Pakistan; Pablo Medina of ABC Color who died in Paraguay; Anja Niedringhaus of the Associated Press who died in Afghanistan; Luke Somers, a freelancer who died in Yemen; Steven Sotloff, a freelancer who died in Syria; and Vyacheslav Veremiy of Vesti who died in Ukraine.

With a total of 61 journalist lives lost in 2014 alone, the efforts the Newseum and other news sources make to honor the lives of those who have worked to tell an important story are truly appreciated.

Angel Idowu also contributed to this story.

Taelor Bentley

Taelor is a member of the Hampton University Class of 2017 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Taelor at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Here in the United States it’s easy to take the concept of Freedom of the Press for granted. The idea that someone would be jailed for the pieces he writes is almost unthinkable to us. Whether or not that’s actually the reality is a different matter–concerns over whistleblowers and journalists giving up their sources have increased in recent years–the concept of Freedom of Press still dominates American thought when it comes to journalistic rights. But it’s just as easy to forget that those principles don’t hold universal–in many parts of the world, imprisoning journalists for the simple facts of what they write is common practice. There are currently 221 journalists in prison worldwide. In 2014, 67 were killed, and just since the beginning of 2015, an additional 17 have been killed. That’s a problem, and it prompts the question: what can be done?

There are currently 31 nations that have at least one journalist in prison. The worst offenders are China, Iran, and Eritrea, at 44, 30, and 23, respectively. Other nations with a significant number of journalists in prison include Myanmar at ten, Egypt and Syria at 12 each, Vietnam at 16, and Ethiopia at 17.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)–the organization that conducted the research–more than half of the imprisoned journalists work on a web platform; the majority of the rest work in print. CPJ also explains why the journalists are imprisoned:the majority were accused of being “antistate,” many were arrested on “retaliatory charges,” a few were charged with false news or defamation, and some were arrested for unknown or undisclosed reasons.

In response to these statistics, students at the University of Maryland came up with a project called “Press Uncuffed” to attempt to bring attention to the plight of journalists imprisoned around the world, as well as to provide support to CPJ and support its mission to free these journalists. Here’s a video that outlines the students’ motivations.

The group, led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dana Priest, will manufacture and sell Lucite bracelets, each of which will be engraved with the name of one of the imprisoned journalists; they are currently in the beginning stages of an indiegogo campaign to make that a reality. They aim to sell these bracelets on May 3, which is “World Press Freedom Day.” The bracelets are made of a see-through material to symbolize the need for transparency in global journalism.

The journalists being highlighted by Press Uncuffed include Reyoot Alemu, who has been imprisoned in Ethiopia on anti-state charges for nearly four years, accused of terrorism. She had written for an independent publication called Feteh, and was highly critical of the government.

There’s also Mahmoud Abou Zeid, nicknamed “Shawkan,” who is in prison in Egypt. He’s a freelance photographer who took pictures after Morsi was ousted. He was accused of many things, including weapons possession and murder, but up to this point it doesn’t appear that official charges were ever filed against him.

Also on the list is Yusuf Ruzimuradov of Uzbekistan. He’s been in prison for more than 16 years after being convicted of being “anti-state” in 1999. He’s one of the longest-imprisoned journalists in the world.

The aim of the Press Uncuffed movement is to bring attention to the plight of those brave journalists who aren’t as fortunate as we are to live in a nation where the press can be considered “free.” Various media companies and other members of the industry, such as HBO and the Knight Foundation, have lent their support. As Press Uncuffed described part of its aim:

We believe the link between information and a free and equitable society is vital and sometimes not fully understood. We hope Press Uncuffed humanizes the people who are risking their lives to give us information and creates a greater appreciation for the role of a free press.

It’s certainly a step in the right direction. While creating this kind of fundraiser won’t necessarily lead to immediate results, it will certainly increase awareness and accountability for  nations that decide to imprison journalists.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Hey y’all!

Thirteen years ago yesterday our country was shaken to the core. I was sixteen, skipping school and watching some awful show on television when the program was interrupted by the news reporting on the first airplane hitting the Twin Towers in New York City. Not even 20 minutes later, as the news anchors were still reporting on the crash, we all watched as another plane crashed into the second tower. It was live TV and there was no controlling what the viewers were going to see. The confusion and horror coming from the news anchors was something I could never forget. My brother and I sat in silence not knowing what to do, what to think, or what was going to happen next. Parents pulled their kids out of school and I remember this feeling of urgency in the air and the uneasiness of what could possibly happen next. Thousands of people had just lost their lives and the country witnessed it. There were no answers, only questions of why and what will happen next.

Every year we remember that horrendous day. It was a constant fear for the first year or two, but also a great feeling that our country had come together and we had heroes to thank daily. Budweiser aired a commercial during Superbowl XXXVI that really demonstrated the somber tone and respect the entire country had for the events of September 11, 2001. The ad was only shown once to ensure they did not profit from it in any way. Even today, 13 years later, it is the most moving dedication done in such a small amount of time.

Yesterday was a somber day for us all. Most news outlets covered the anniversary in addition to current events. While watching one of the programs I had to do a quick rewind to make sure I was hearing it correctly. Young America’s Foundation had gone to the George Washington University campus in Washington, DC last Friday, September 5, to interview students about the anniversary of September 11. YAF only had a few questions to ask these students:

1. Next week marks the anniversary of a major national event. Do you know what that is?
2. Do you know what ISIS is?
3. Did you know that ISIS is responsible for the beheading of two American journalists? If so, could you name one?
4. Are you aware of the celebrity “nude photo” hacking scandal? If so, could you name any of the celebrities involved?

The responses from these kids are just mind blowing…

So the total results:

• Six out of 30 students recognized that this week is the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
• Four out of 30 students were able to name one of the American journalists beheaded at the hands of ISIS.
• 29 out of 30 students were able to identify one or more celebrities involved in the nude photo hacking scandal.

The kid interviewed two minutes in genuinely reacts like he had no idea what had been going on and it clearly upset him, which is great but frustrating. Actually this whole situation is frustrating. How is it that college students in their late teens and early twenties know more about pop culture and the ridiculousness of a nude picture hacking scandal than they do about current events and the death of two Americans at the hands of terrorists? This is not only the responsibility of these young adults to know what’s going on but it is the responsibility of teachers, parents, and our society as a whole.

There are already so many issues with what kids are learning in the classroom today that this should not surprise me, but it honestly does. How is this possible? When I was growing up my parents and grandparents talked to me about Pearl Harbor and the significance of that date. We may have brushed through it in history class but it is a day that I remember because it was an important part of history. My grandparents even lost friends and family members during the attack on Pearl Harbor and World War II. The same could be said about 9/11 and the Iraq War that followed. Hell, there are even movies about the two events. While there have been about seven movies made about the Pearl Harbor attacks, nearly 20 have been produced about 9/11.

What has become of our younger generation? Things need to change or our society will become Idiocracy.

This video is a great representation of what is going on in our culture and it needs to stop. We need our children to be better and smarter and more informed. We are not only disappointing our parents and grandparents, but we are disappointing our country, our culture, the world, and our Founding Fathers! Flabbergasted.

I don’t want to end this post on a note of frustration for our society. Instead I want to share a moving video about the last surviving search and rescue dog who returned to Ground Zero yesterday, a place she had not been to since 2001.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Never Forget.

Allison Dawson

Allison Dawson was born in Germany and raised in Mississippi and Texas. A graduate of Texas Tech University and Arizona State University, she’s currently dedicating her life to studying for the LSAT. Twitter junkie. Conservative. Get in touch with Allison at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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