WASHINGTON - The White House excluded several major US news organizations, including some it has openly criticized, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary on Friday, representatives of the organizations said.
Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer.
Spicer's off-camera briefing, or "gaggle," replaced the usual televised daily news briefing on Friday in the White House briefing room. He did not say why those particular news organizations were excluded, a decision which drew strong protests.
Spicer said his team decided to have a gaggle in his office instead of a full briefing in the larger White House briefing room.
"Our job is to make sure that we're responsive to folks in media. We want to make sure we answer your questions, but we don't need to do everything on camera every day,” he said.
Reporters at the Associated Press and Time magazine walked out of the briefing when hearing that others had been barred from the session.