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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A major hacking scandal at the entertainment company Sony has escalated quickly over the last few weeks. It started with leaked information, and has now led to full on terror threats against theaters that show the movie The Interview, a comedy that centers around the premise of killing North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. The release has since been cancelled. The hacker group responsible called themselves “Guardians of the Peace.” This morning, the FBI put out a statement that included the following:

As a result of our investigation, and in close collaboration with other U.S. government departments and agencies, the FBI now has enough information to conclude that the North Korean government is responsible for these actions.

Just before 2:00 PM today, President Barack Obama held a news conference to address the Sony issue, among other things. It is his final press conference of 2014.

The first question of the day was, as expected, about the Sony hack.

A Politico reporter asked whether or not Sony made the best choice pulling The Interview. Obama was clear: he thinks that Sony made a mistake. He talked about the need to be able to resist cyber attacks, saying “we’re not even close to where we need to be.” He also emphasized the need for strong cyber security laws that would serve to protect both the public and private sectors. He then made an excellent argument for why Sony’s decision was wrong, saying:

We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship in the United States. Because if someone is able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary they don’t like, or news reports they don’t like. Or even worse, imagine if producers and distributors and others start engaging in self censorship because they don’t want to offend the sensibilities of someone whose sensibilities need to be affected. That’s not who we are. That’s not what America’s about.

He continued to emphasize the need to stand against terrorist demands, because of the slippery slope to which it could lead, specifically referencing North Korea in this case–not a surprising move given that the FBI had already done so. He said there would be a response, but he wasn’t going to go into detail today, emphasizing the need for international cooperation on the issue of cyber security. Later, in response to another question, he pointed out that despite the international aspect, there’s no evidence to indicate that North Korea was working with any other country.

It’s been a long few weeks for Sony, and the idea that a foreign government could use cyber-terrorism to intimidate an American company is concerning. But President Obama was right–negotiating and giving in to terrorists may be even more dangerous down the road. While his plan about how to respond to North Korea was, completely understandably, very vague, I have a feeling the White House may need to take tough actions here to mitigate Sony’s caving to the cyberterrorists’ demands.

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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