Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer said on Friday that President-elect Donald Trump will not ban individual media outlets from the White House as he did on the campaign trail, when he banned news outlets from attending his rallies.
“There’s a big difference between a campaign where it is a private venue using private funds and a government entity,” Spicer said Friday at an event hosted by Politico.
He said suggestions that Trump’s administration will change the way press briefings are run are just “conversations.”
“We have a respect for the press when it comes to the government, that that is something that you can’t ban an entity from,” Spicer said, as quoted by Politico. “That’s what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”
On the campaign trail, Trump routinely excoriated the “dishonest” media, calling out publications and reporters by name during rallies. In February, he threatened to “open up” libel laws if elected to make it easier to sue news organizations.
Publications including The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Politico, The Huffington Post and other outlets that Trump claimed covered him unfairly were blacklisted from his campaign events during the election and only granted credentials again in September.
Forget about this whole “conversations” bullsh*t; it’ll mostly be questions pre-submitted to him and answered via YouTube.
Oh, and FYI: last night, my Twitter feed picked up an interesting bit of news: Jared Kushner (aka Mr. Ivanka) made some deal with Sinclair Broadcasting whereby that channel will gain automatic access to Rump’s proclamations.
EDIT TO ADD: At first, I knew I’d heard the name of the company but couldn’t quite place my finger on it. THIS was the chop shop that ran anti-Kerry propaganda in 2004…
http://mediamatters.org/research/2004/11/18/sinclairs-news-central-provides-steady-diet-of/132312
“We have a respect for the press when it comes to the government, that that is something that you can’t ban an entity from," Spicer said, as quoted by Politico. “That’s what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”
Just lost the use of my left side - I think I may have had an irony stroke - someone please call 911…
Thanks, Sean. We understand that under the current laws we’re not a dictatorship but sometimes it’s nice just to hear it out loud. Like saying “I love you” now and then just because. Say, how’s the rescheduling coming along for that conflict of interest dilly-o?
As a general proposition, given the 1st amendment which says the government cannot limit free speech, could the administration ban individual press outfits without being in violation of the constitution?
I really don’t know and I don’t think the question has come up but the president does not own the White House - we do. We let him or her live there and I don’t think they could do this if the press fought back and took them to court.