Today further signs that the White House doesn’t believe in the right to a free press. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was reportedly banned after she asked the President some questions that almost any reporter would have asked today.
The White House banned Kaitlan Collins, a White House reporter for CNN, from a press event after Collins asked President Trump questions at an Oval Office photo op https://t.co/7QN8CoZ7sp pic.twitter.com/hWspq7W1yy
— CNN (@CNN) July 25, 2018
This was apparently a decision by White House press secretary Sarah Sanders along with the newest member of the President’s communications staff, Bill Shine. CNN reports:
“They said ‘You are dis-invited from the press availability in the Rose Garden today,'” Collins said in an interview. “They said that the questions I asked were inappropriate for that venue. And they said I was shouting.”
A video clip of the exchange shows that Collins was speaking the same way journalists in the press pool usually speak.
Collins said she reacted by saying, “You’re banning me from an event because you didn’t like the questions I asked.”
Sarah Sanders statement on White House decision to ban a reporter who asked questions. pic.twitter.com/w3b9FCIvIo
— WHCA (@whca) July 25, 2018
Others networks, reporters and news organizations are defending Collins. That even includes Fox News.
As a member of the White House Press pool- @FoxNews stands firmly with @CNN on this issue and the issue of access https://t.co/TFwfLQtP9h
— Bret Baier (@BretBaier) July 25, 2018
No word on whether she is welcome back in the future. It’s clear though the press needs to stand together one this or else the White House will chip away at one of the great institutions of democracy.
