Obama glosses over his own attempt to block media from White House as he slams Trumps CNN ban

Former President Barack Obama excoriated President Trump’s shocking ban of three media outlets from White House access — but glossed over his own history of trying to block Fox News from covering him.Last Friday, Trump ignited a First Amendment firestorm by announcing a ban on CNN, Politico, and MS Now from accessing the White House to cover his administration, citing their “negative” coverage of him, a move that Obama panned.“My imagination could not foresee some of the stuff that is going on right now,” Obama said during a discussion at Colgate University.“I’m trying to think what would have happened if I had said, you know what, Fox News, you’re out of here! It’s unimaginable!”“If you have a certain cohort, let’s call it 30 to 35% of the country right now, which thinks that’s okay, what that means is that we have not developed the kind of understanding of what democracy requires, and we’ve got to shore that back up.”However, the Obama administration had attempted to curtail Fox News’ press access — albeit at a smaller scale than Trump’s controversial ban on CNN, Politico, and MS Now.In 2009, his team attempted to block Fox News’ pool reporters from interviewing his “executive-pay czar,” Kenneth Feinberg, while giving other outlets in the pool access.

Obama and his administration openly questioned Fox News’ legitimacy as a news organization.“We see Fox right now as the source and the outlet for Republican Party talking points,” then-White House Communications director Anita Dunn argued at the time.“And it’s fine if that’s, you know, how they want to build their business model,” Dunn said.“But we don’t think we need to treat them as though they are a news organization the way other news organizations here are treated.”Obama appeared to back the effort to cut Fox News out at the time, telling NBC News, “If media is operating basically as a talk radio format, that’s one thing.

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