The Washington press corps needs to boycott White House events | Margaret Sullivan

CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately call last week’s sudden lockout ‘a direct assault on the first amendment’. That’s right On Monday, the three news organizations that had been kicked out of the White House because of Donald Trump’s latest fit of pique sued the president and three top advisers. An accompanying statement by CNN, MS Now and Politico accurately calls last week’s sudden lockout “a direct assault on the first amendment”. The legal action is the right move, of course, and one that may prevail since the ban seems to be a clear case of what press-rights lawyers call “viewpoint discrimination”.

In other words, Trump didn’t like their stories so he removed their access. The president has been in a bad mood lately, for obvious reasons. Retaliating against the press is his favorite way to let off steam. In other words, the biggest and most influential “print” news organizations – along with the major broadcast TV networks – should take collective action by boycotting that briefing room and similar White House events until their journalistic colleagues get their credentials back. The major