Press Relations and Presidential Bans

There's a long history of presidents and the people who work for them having

adversarial relationships with the press corps.

That relationship is adversarial by design, and I, it can often, I mean,

it does get a little testy at times.

It's not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran.

How would you like it if I judge your career by those seven

minutes when you walked

off the set in New York?

Well, Mr-

Now, would you like that?

I didn't want war.

To assume I wanted war is just, uh, is just flat wrong, Helen,

in all due respect.

Air-

No, hold on for a second, please.

Mr. Knight-

Let, excuse me. Excuse me.

Major, that,

that's nonsense,

and you should know better.

Presidents and their administrations do not love the press at every moment.

They aren't supposed to.

But they understand, most of them, that pushing hard

for information and for answers is part of the job of the press

that covers the

White House, and the administration, and all the agencies because a free

press is a critical part of having a free country.

And don't take it just from me. Here's how Ronald Reagan described it back

in

1985.

One of the first institutions to be attacked by tyrants,

whether they're dictators of the left or right, is the press.

The first institution to be attacked by tyrants.

So here we are, 40 years later. Our current president

seems to be turning Reagan's warning into his own

version of a case study he's trying to follow.

Donald Trump is simply too thin-skinned, too coddled, too

shaded by, shaded from real news to be able to handle

the

scrutiny of a free press. And the more unpopular he gets,

the more he feels

like he's losing, the more he feels the need to isolate

himself from the

people asking him hard questions.

And so today, Donald Trump announced that, effective immediately, in his words, he

is banning CNN, Politico, and this network, MSNBC, Now,

from the White

House, with plans to ban more outlets in the

future.

Later in the day, he was asked about that order by reporters in the press pool

at

the White House.

How is the ban working on the media outlets?

Oh, the ban on the, on the free press, right?

Uh, a very simple ban.

I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here.

I would say the ban would go as far as you can.

And if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if you, if they could

straighten themselves out, I'd love it.

Oh, the ban on the free press you're asking

about?

I would say it should go as far as it can, those were his words,

until they straighten themselves out.