Trump to skip correspondents’ dinner as media row heats up

President Donald Trump ratcheted up an increasingly hostile feud with the media Saturday, announcing he will skip a century-old annual correspondents’ dinner a day after an fierce row erupted over press access to the White House.   

The Trump White House triggered widespread outrage on Friday by denying access to an off-camera briefing to several major US media, including CNN, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and Politico.   

Smaller outlets that have provided favorable coverage of the Trump administration, such as Breitbart and the One America News Network, received a green light to attend the briefing by the president’s spokesman Sean Spicer.   

The move came just hours after Trump renewed his assault on the mainstream US media by calling it “the enemy of the people,” in an ongoing battle in which he has labeled the fourth estate “fake news” and the “opposition party.” The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) said it was “protesting strongly” against the decision to selectively deny media access, and would bring it up with the Republican administration.   

The New York Times described the White House decision as “an unmistakable insult to democratic ideals,” while CNN called it “an unacceptable development” and the Los Angeles Times warned the incident had “ratcheted up the White House’s war on the free press” to a new level.   
WASHINGTON 
AFP Feb26, 2017