WATCH: Jen Psaki delivers ‘a master class in public communications’ while shutting down Newsmax

White House press secretary Jen Psaki was praised on Friday for the calm way she debunked the premise of a question from the far-right cable network Newsmax.

The issue of political operatives using White House briefings for political purposes came to prominence during the George W. Bush administration.

"The White House faced fresh accusations of a clandestine propaganda campaign yesterday after it emerged it granted regular access to a rightwing blogger with a habit of asking President Bush easy questions. Jeff Gannon, who represented a rightwing site owned by a Texas-based Republican activist, had been a regular at White House briefings since 2003 but aroused reporters' suspicions after posing ideologically loaded questions," The Guardian reported in February of 2005.

"The fake White House correspondent quit his job at the Talon News site on Wednesday after liberal bloggers found he had been operating under a pseudonym, and that he was linked to several gay pornographic web domain addresses under his real idenity, James Guckert," The Guardian explained. "Subsequent inquiries by liberal bloggers uncovered Gannon's links to gay porn domain addresses under his real name, and a posted photograph of a man posing in his underwear with his initials. The exposure prompted Gannon to resign his job at Talon, although he has shown no remorse about his conduct at the White House."

In December, NPR's Steve Inskeep asked Psaki how she would deal with far-right activists in the briefing room.

"How do you think you will engage the right-wing media ecosystem, if I can call it that?" Inskeep asked. "I'm thinking of networks like Fox, but also OANN and Newsmax that have larger and larger audiences."

Psaki replied she will, "rely on my experience at the State Department, there were many, many days where there were journalists — I'm air quoting that — who are from Russia or China, essentially arms of the government, you know, arms of the state-run media. And we let them in the briefing room, and they ask questions, and sometimes I had a little fun with them, you know, about who they were asking the question on behalf of."

"In terms of, you know, [OANN] and kind of other right-wing entities? I don't think my job as the White House press secretary is to give them a bigger platform. But at the same time, when we're at a point when it's COVID-safe and there is a full briefing room, I also don't think it's my job to keep people out," she explained.

This approach was on display on Friday when Psaki out-witted Newsmax personality Emerald Robinson.

"Given the number of former Obama administration officials that are now in the Biden administration and the president's relatively light schedule, there's a growing perception that this is really just the third term of President Obama. What do you say to people who say that?" Robinson asked.

"Who were saying that?" Psaki asked. "Who's saying that?"

"You've heard that a lot in the media," Robinson replied.

"Who in the media," Psaki repeated.

"Different people," Robinson replied without listing a single example.

Here's some of what people were saying about the exchange: