Trump is right to criticize the media, wrong to selectively exclude them

As reported in the Wall Street Journal, President Trump began posting several tweets Friday morning pounding the intelligence community after reports that his chief of staff, Reince Priebus, asked officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation to refute a report on alleged contacts between Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian intelligence officials.

Later in the morning, he delivered a freewheeling speech to conservative activists at CPAC decrying the “fake news” media as the “enemy of the people.” Several hours later, press secretary Sean Spicer took the unusual step of barring from a briefing several major news outlets that Mr. Trump has criticized in the past, and word began to circulate that a crackdown on leakers was in the works, according to a White House official.

Watch the speech, it is clarifying as to what he means when he says things.

His comments during the speech are different than reported in the mainstream media and you can see the difference in the reporting of what he said. He is right to push back on the media and he is right to continue to criticize what he thinks is inaccurate reporting. Freedom of the press does not mean freedom from criticism.

However, barring selected news organizations from White House briefings is wrong! It was wrong when Obama tried to do it with FoxNews, it is equally wrong when Trump does it with left leaning media.

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