‘Straight out of the authoritarian playbook’: Journalists decry White House’s ‘outrageous’ barring of press orgs

On Friday, the White House barred several media outlets from attending a meeting with press secretary Sean Spicer. Among those barred were CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, BuzzFeed and others, while the Associated Press and Time did not attend in protest.

Cable news networks NBC, ABC and Fox News were permitted to attend, as were Breitbart and the Washington Times.

The move was widely decried by journalists, who blasted the administration’s “authoritarian” decision and called on media organizations to stand in solidarity with the outlets barred from attendance.

Some confusion ensued over whether today's briefing could be described as a press gaggle, a media scrum or an otherwise informal gathering. As the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza explained: