White House Bars Media Outlets From Briefing: These Outlets Must Stand Up to Trump

On Feb. 24, the White House barred CNN, the New York Times, Politico, the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed from attending a “gaggle,” a non-televised press briefing, but allowed a number of conservative and other outlets to attend.

The outlets invited included Fox News, Breitbart and the Washington Times — all outlets that are sympathetic to the authoritarian administration. The approved list also included CBS, NBC, ABC, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Time and the Associated Press, although Time and AP boycotted in protest.

This is censorship, plain and simple.

The Wall Street Journal has since released a statement saying they will not attend any other exclusive briefings, and that they were unaware of the exclusivity at the time. Other outlets ought to follow suit.

Please sign this petition to urge CBS, NBC, ABC, Bloomberg, Fox News, Breitbart and the Washington Times to commit to boycott any exclusive White House briefings in the interest of a transparent, open and free press.