White House Correspondents‘ Association Respond To WH Lawn Fight

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Donald Trump dislikes “Fake News” aka truthtellers. When MSNBC’s host of Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough asked him what he thought of Russian President Vladimir Putin killing journalists, POTUS replied “at least he’s a leader,” and the U.S. “does plenty of killing also,” Politifact reported. Trump appears to have followed Putin’s playbook elsewhere.

Trump continually marginalizes journalists and emboldens others to act against them. The White House Correspondents‘ Association on Sunday said it is “closely monitoring” the White House press secretary’s decision to suspend the pass of reporter Brian Karem for 30 days.

Karem is Playboy’s senior White House reporter, and he tweeted that he received an email Friday from the White House saying his pass would be suspended as of Monday afternoon:

‘Received an email today shortly before 5 p.m. from the WH: as of Monday afternoon my press pass is suspended for 30 days.’

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President of the White House Correspondents’ Association Jonathan Karl released a statement that read:

‘We sincerely hope this White House does not again make the mistake of revoking a reporter’s hard pass. The WHCA has stood up to violations of due process rights before and we stand ready to safeguard those rights for all reporters who work to hold our government accountable.’

The White House Correspondents’ Association indicated that it was following the White House and Karem for due process rights violations. Karl continued in the statement:

‘We believe everyone should conduct themselves professionally at the White House.’

President of the Security Studies Group and former Army Special Forces Jim Hanson caught an altercation between Sebastian Gorka and Karem in the Rose Garden:

‘After the #SocialMediaSummit @realDonaldTrump invited the conservative influencers to the Rose Garden for his press conf We got the nice seats & I guess “journalist” @BrianKarem was sad He tried to pick a fight w/ @SebGorka & then thought better My $$$ was on Seb as I note’

Trump has admired and tried to emulate Putin, who emboldens the killers of journalists to act by an administration that marginalizes the media. Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Europe and Central Asia program Nina Ognianova told Politifact that journalists who cover human rights abuses, organized crime, corruption, and government wrongdoing can be:

‘…slain with impunity in Putin’s Russia. Their killers are emboldened to act by an administration that marginalizes them, isolates them, and downplays their role in society.’

Russia has murdered “at least 34 journalists since 2000” and ranks 180 out of 199 countries ranked for freedom of the press. Even Iraq and Sudan were ahead of them, and Russia’s ranking has continued to go down during Putin’s last decade.

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This summer Karem and conservative radio talk show host former member the Trump administration, Sebastian Gorka, got into a shouting match. At issue was biased social media. Gorka shouted at Karem:

‘You’re a punk! You’re not a journalist, you’re a punk! Hey, Gorka, get a job!’

Afterward, Trump tweeted congratulating Gorka as if this was somehow a fake wrestling match:

‘@SebGorka Wins Big, No Contest!’

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Last November, the White House rejected CNN’s Jim Acosta’s press pass after he and Trump had a heated debate. CNN and Acosta sued, and the judge demanded that Acosta’s pass be fully reinstated.

Then in May, the Trump White House set down new rules to limit the number of journalists who could receive “hard” passes. These are long-term media credentials.

The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.