White House Reportedly Bans Spokespersons From ‘Fake News’ CNN Shows [Source]


The White House is boycotting CNN, according to a Politico report. The site claims White House staffers said President Donald Trump put a ban on spokespersons from the “fake news” site. Apparently, Trump’s CNN ban is due to his anger over the news outlet’s biased coverage.

This week has been a busy week for the word, “ban.” It all began with multiple sources reporting on the White House’s “Muslim ban,” which was amended to an “immigration ban” to a “visa ban” and so on and so forth. In the end, the Trump Administration said it was not a ban at all; officials said the executive order is “extreme vetting.”

A new report suggests the White House is banning familiar faces like the Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway and others from appearing on CNN programming. Presuming the news is valid, the move essentially nixes CNN from on-air shows about the affairs at the White House. An unnamed official spoke about the so-called ban imposed by Trump.

“We’re sending surrogates to places where we think it makes sense to promote our agenda.”

A reporter with the news giant was heard lashing out at the decision, saying the president is trying to sanction the station and send its ratings into a tailspin.

“They’re trying to cull CNN from the herd.”

To clarify, the executive branch’s action is not an all-out ban. Rather, it is a curbing of CNN’s access until come such a time as the president believes the station can be fair and balanced in its reporting. Still, many are suspect of Conway and WH Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s noticeable absence from the network over recent weeks.

Spicer, while attending an event at George Washington University, was pressed on the rumor about the ban. He downplayed the reports and said the action was not a freeze or moratorium. However, he expressed his reticence to engage with CNN without mentioning it by name.

“I’m not going to sit around and engage with people who have no desire to actually get something right.”

The stiff relationship between Donald Trump and CNN has been volatile for a time now and dates back to his presidential campaign. Early on, Trump lashed out at individual reporters like Megyn Kelly at Fox News. Then, he pivoted to an entire station by calling CNN the “Clinton News Network.”

Slowly, surrogates began appearing less frequently as Trump picked up the pace at his labeling of the network as “fake news,” according to Politico’s reporting.

“The last time an administration official was on CNN’s Sunday public affairs show ‘State of the Union’ was Conway on January 8. She also appeared on CNN the following Wednesday with Anderson Cooper, the same day as then President-elect Trump’s press conference where he derided CNN for publishing a report that intelligence officials had briefed both Trump and former President Barack Obama that the Russians may have negative information about Trump. At the press conference, the president-elect refused to take a question from CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, who shouted out to him to answer his question since he was attacking his news organization.”

Another telltale sign that White House officials or spokespersons were showing up less frequently on CNN’s airwaves in recent history is their absence from the Sunday program, “State of the Union.” Jake Tapper shed light on the matter by saying the White House had turned to a pattern of declining invitations.

It’s unclear if the rumored CNN White House ban is the new normal and a sign of toxicity in Washington. Raw Story says CNN employs regular Trump Supporters Jeffrey Lord, ex-Senator Rick Santorum, and Kayleigh McEnany. The Trump White House reportedly employs none of them.

Share your thoughts about the latest developments about the White House-CNN tug-of-war.

[Featured Image by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]

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