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A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 25 February 2017

White House bars major news outlets from informal briefing

Continued from front think you can take that to
the bank.
The pool included Reuters, “We do what we can to
Bloomberg, CBS, Hearst accommodate the press.
Newspapers and CBS Ra- I think we’ve gone above
dio. Others in the briefing and beyond when it
were Fox, NBC and ABC. comes to accessibility, and
Bloomberg reported that openness and getting folks
its reporter was unaware — our officials, our team.”
of the exclusions until after During a panel discussion
the briefing. last December, Spicer said
John Roberts, Fox’s chief that open access for the
White House correspon- media is “what makes a
dent, told anchor Shepard democracy a democracy
Smith on the air Friday that versus a dictatorship.”
Fox supports complaints Reaction to Friday’s events
being filed by the White from the barred outlets
House Correspondents As- and others was swift.
sociation and pool TV net- Davan Maharaj, editor-in-
works. chief and publisher of the
“You can speculate, Shep, Los Angeles Times, called
that there might be some the newspaper’s exclusion
extenuating circumstanc- Reporters line up in hopes of attending a briefing in Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s office at the “unfortunate.”
es as to why those people White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 24, 2017. White House held an off camera briefing in “The public has a right to
were not invited, we’re Spicer’s office, where they selected who could attend. know, and that means be-
going to look into that fur- (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais) ing informed by a variety
ther....” Roberts said. of news sources, not just
In a statement, the cor- radio and TV outlet Friday. was playing favorites, he tion answered or fit in a those filtered by the White
respondent association’s “We recorded audio of this said he “disagreed with the room that we’re excluding House press office in hopes
president, Jeff Mason, said event and quickly shared premise of the question,” people. We’ve actually of getting friendly cover-
the group was “protesting it out of an obligation to according to the audio. gone above and beyond age,” Maharaj said in a
strongly” against how the protect the interests of all “We’ve brought more re- with making ourselves, statement. “Regardless
briefing was handled by pool members,” the news porters into this process. our team, and our brief- of access, the Times will
the White House. division said. When Spicer And the idea that every ing room more accessible continue to report on the
CBS News said in a state- was asked by a reporter time that every single per- than probably any prior Trump administration with-
ment that it was the pool’s at the briefing whether he son can’t get their ques- administration. And so I out fear or favor.”q

Official says Mexico rejected US
plan on third-country deportees

CHRIS SHERMAN pening there if they could
Associated Press be here,” Osorio Chong
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The said. “And we told them
Mexican government that there’s no way we
made clear to visiting U.S. can have them here during
emissaries that it will not that process.”
accept deportees from The visit by the U.S. sec-
third countries under any retaries came at a tense
circumstances, the interior moment in U.S.-Mexico re-
secretary said Friday. lations. President Donald
Miguel Angel Osorio Trump has carried his tough
Chong said in an interview campaign talk about im-
with Radio Formula that migrants and factory jobs
U.S. Secretary of State Rex that moved to Mexico into
Tillerson and Homeland Se- the White House, ordering
curity Secretary John Kelly the building of a border
asked Mexican officials wall, stepped up deporta-
during their Thursday visit if tions and a renegotiation
they would host deportees of the North American Free
from other countries while Trade Agreement.
their immigration cases are A memo published by the
processed in the U.S. Department of Homeland
“They can’t leave them Security earlier this week
here on the border be- suggested that U.S. im-
cause we have to reject migration officials could
them. There is no chance deport immigrants in the
they would be received by country illegally to the con-
Mexico,” he said of the de- tiguous country they had
portees. entered from, which in
“They asked us that while the vast majority of cases
their legal process is hap- would be Mexico. q