Joining me. On friday when sean spicer was holding a press gaggle, he blocked reporters from cnn and other outlets from attending. A move that was surprising for even the most experienced. Cnn said we will keep reporting regardless. Saturday, prumesident trump sai he will skip the White House Correspondent dinner. You see him there in 2011. He hasnt been since. He is doubling down on the idea that you cant trust us. Hes offering a new track from his broken record of media attacks including this tweet e he says Fake News Media knowingly doesnt tell the truth. Its a great danger to our country. The failing New York Times has become a joke. Like wise cnn, sad. You know whats not sad . My panel. Here with a wide range of views to break this down. White house kcorrespondent for politico and will. Hes the author of the burn identity. You were there on friday. You were trying to attend the off camera briefing. Tell us what happened. It started a little before that because we thought we were having an on camera gaggle with sean spicer in the Briefing Room but then we received an email around 11 30 saying it would be an off camera gaggle and in his office. Sort of the rumor mill started going around. He said what does that mean . Its extended pool. Pool are the people who cover the white house in every Single Movement and they follow the president around as a way to send out notes to us who cant be there. We went to the press office and we asked are we allowed to come as well. They said well take your name down and email you if youre allowed to be on. We were all waiting for this email. Some got it, some didnt. We thought lets just herd in there. Maybe they forgot to email us. Its all very unusual. As we were trying to make our way to spicers office, a Deputy Press Secretary was saying to some outlets, absolutely. Come on in. C thrks thr cnn wasbarred, buzzfeed, politico. I asked the press conference why is politico not allowed in. Can i have a comment because i think i will have to write a story. She said youre threatening me. It was a very odd response because obviously i wasnt physically threatening her but it was this is going to become a story. It got me thinking this is all by design. They knew by blocking us we would be paying attention to the story about how this is an infringement of the First Amendment and they are trying to squeeze us out of the white house and briefing and instead of covering the story of the day is that the chief of staff Reince Priebus reached out to the number two at the fbi to ask him to kill stories about contacts between Campaign Aides and high level russian officials. That became the story of the day. The fact we were blocked out instead of the real story which spicer did have to answer some questions to but when you only bring in small group of people including some more friendly outlets, you dont have others in the room to really fire away more questions. Thats why that matters. When you invite a channel called one America News Network thats so small it doesnt have nielson ratings but you exclude cnn, its clearly a meditated position. Does this feel like a strategy by the white house . It seems, i would call it nixonian but that would be unfair to the memory of president nixon. This is an attempt to bully the press by using access as a weapon to manipulate coverage. I think the wall street journal put out a statement that was clear. If we had known what was happening we wouldnt have participated in that meeting with mr. Spicer. I think thats the right attitude for the rest of the press to take. That if the administration will try to boycott certain news outlets then perhaps we should, as news organizations, return the favor to this administration. Thats interesting. Tara, youre a politico, do you think that will happen at politico . Im sure we will follow the guy gans of tidance of the whit. Their team are masters of distraction. This whole story because they were blocked out. Lets not forget that president obama blocked fox. We still have our press credentials. We need to evaluate how hysterical to get about this. Absolutely. On the other hand, here is hold up i view it. Access is taken away inch by inch. Press freedoms are not curtailed at once. What were seeing is a small step in that direction. I want to bring amy in. Youre here with me and youre not running for office. Part of that kind of wave, i would say of Trump Supporters seeking public office. I wonder how you view this incident and how Trump Supporters view this incident . I think Trump Supporters agree with what he is saying when hes talking about fake news and him lashing out at the media and whatnot. You heard them at cpac and loud applause and rooars when he mad some of those comments. I think the media shouldnt hyp hyperventilate over this. From my understanding this has happened before. Nothing like there. When it happened with fox other news outlets stood up and the Obama Administration did not continue doing it. It has happened before. My understanding is these gaggles happen all the time and the pool of reporters were in there. That happens when hes traveling too. Not everybody has access when hes traveling. You think its okay to have the president and the Administration Support favorable friendly outlets and block out cnn . No. I think the media needs to have access because we the people need to know whats going on. For whatever reason they did this in his office and it is smaller room, they say, and not everybody can fit in. I think you should make room for big outlets. You hear the cheers at cpac, his supporters, his voters are with him in the battles in the media. They are. Look, its not necessarily wrong reporting but things that were omitted, theres been 16 stories that have been done since he was elected that were false. Fake stories. Out of tens of thousands of news stories. Still. I think part of it is people rushing to get it right in the day of the internet and social media. Everybody wants the first clicks. I think that its more important to take your time and get it right than get it wrong. There were mistakes made last night when the president went to one of his thoehotels in d. C. Im with you on mistakes but at the same time, i look at what hes doing on friday and saying were inching in a difficult direction. The Washington Post editor said trump is heading down an undemocratic path. Do you feel that . I dont feel that. You still have access and i think you will continue to have access. I know that people are upset about the White House Correspondent dinner. The president goes there to get mocked. He doesnt need to go to that dinner. Hes mocked all the time. Look at every saturday night with saturday night live. At some point it must get old. I can understand that. If he doesnt feel genuine and want to be there, then why should he pretend. The dinner is also about scholarships. Will, your take for trump to skip the dinner and announce it two months ahead of time. Someone on twitter compared it to the famous seinfeld episode when george said im breaking up with you. A lot of journalists and news organizations were saying im getting ready to drop out. This was a strike to take control of the issue. I think in a weird way, i think trump may have done the media a favor because its definitely time to rethink the white house correspondence dinner. I agree with you, i think drip by drip this campaign against the media is real threat to american democracy. I think april 29th would be a great day for the media to take steps to call attention to whats going on here instead of a glitzy dinner with the red carpet, i would love to see a candle light vigil for the journalists around the world who have lost their lives or been in prison on behalf of press freedom. Id like to see a teach in about how serious some of the threats to the First Amendment that are going on right now are. I think this should be day to celebrate the First Amendment with or without donald trump. Let me make one more point before we go to break. Breitbart is getting an interview with trump. Fox and friends having an interview with the president in the coming days. This suggest a strategy to seek out friendly outlets for interviews. Have you been able to interview President Trump yet . Unfortunately, politico has not had the shot. If the president is watching, i would love to interview you as well. The attack on the media is really kind of creating a level of confusion for people who are in the middle ground and they dont really know whats fake news and whats not. After my brother, hes 20 years old, hes in college and he read that politico was blocked from the briefing. He asked me are you fake news. The fact hes wondering whats real and whats not is a problem. The fact that people are confused is whats the problem right now. They dont know because there is a predisposition to believe the president. I think that creating the press of the Opposition Party is confusing people who are dont know who to believe. Can i say one thing . Go ahead. Its not just the president. Its other stories like the Washington Post. There are other fake stories too that have been you say fake stories. I say mistakes. Okay. Mistakes. They need to be corrected. They are. It needs to slow down and slow down and get it right instead of being first one out there. Amy, stick around. Im going to say goodbye to tara. Thank you for being here. Everybody else come back. Up next, we have an exclusive interview with one of trumps favorite targets. Hell be right back. Let me talk to you about retirement. A 401 k is the most sound way to go. Lets talk asset allocation. Sure. You seem knowledgeable, professional. Would you trust me as your Financial Advisor . I would. I would indeed. Well, lets be clear, here. Im actually a deejay. [ laughing ] no way i have no Financial Experience at all. That really is you . If theyre not a cfp pro, you just dont know. Find a certified Financial Planner professional whos thoroughly vetted at letsmakeaplan. Org. Cfp. Work with the highest standard. Pabut with odor free blueemu continuous pain relief spray, i can box out any muscle or joint pain immediately. Blueemu continuous pain relief spray, it works fast and you wont stink. Welcome back. Let me show you a great example of trumps fixation with cable news and use of twitter to react. Tonight the New York Times shows its new oscar ad. Its all about truth and the aim of signing you up. I talked about the ad at 6 34 a. M. This morning. Eight minutes later the president tweeted this. Calling out the failing New York Times for running the ad. What do you think . A coincidence or was he watching cnn . You decide. The times has been one of the president s favorite targets. Hes tweeted about the nyt labeling it failing 53 times trying to get that nickname to stick. Joining me is the head of that news room, the executive editor of the New York Times. Is the times failing . Why does he say it . What are the facts . Were not failing at all. Our digital subscriptions are going through the roof. Even print subscriptions are up. Were a profitable company. Were a news room thats hiring. Were big, vibrant, important newsroom. I think the reason he goes after us, to be frank, i have to say theres an effort by this administration to minimize the press. Minimize. Yeah. I think their goal is evident. Make it so theres a handful of independent institutions whose job it is, and were among them, to critique the president , to hold the president accountable. The judiciary is in the same batch. I think if you look at the pattern of the president s tweets, theyre designed to minimize the institutions who are charged with holding him accountable. I think thats dangerous. Do you think these are authoritarian tendencies the way some outsiders have suggested they are . Im not going to go that far. Im going to hold onto my news room hat of not characterizing things that way. I think its troublesome. I think its dangerous. I think it means that all the institutions including the press and the New York Times whose job it is to ask hard questions. If he continues doing what hes doing, hes attempting to make that harder to do. It will not be harder to do inside our newsrooms. Were going to ask hard questions. Were going to continue to be tough analysts and reporters about the Trump Administration and its actions. Fair and tough analysts. I think he clearly wants to convince his supporters were not to be trusted. Hes wrong. When he tweets about your company, does that help subscriptions . Is trump the best thing to happen to the times subscription strategy . Trump is the best thing to happen to the times subscription strategy. Yes. Every time he tweets it drives subscriptions wildly. If i can Say Something hes accomplished. I think that there was a long time when the press wondering about its place in the society. The last several years as newspaper subscriptions dwindled, local newspapers worried about their future. I think thats happened in the last couple of months has been tremendous for news organizations. Our mission is clearer than its ever been. Were covering a dramatic revolution in government and how the country is governed. It feels like all the things that bothered us and made us lose confidence in last few months has gone away. Its so clear what our mission is. I think a lot of Trump Supporters were saying why werent you doing that for eight years when president obama was in office. Why have you discovered your mission . I think those supporters were not reading the New York Times. I keep using the example of tom dashel. In the beginning of the Obama Administration he was the most powerful person emerging in the Obama Administration. It was relentless coverage of him by the New York Times, Washington Post and others about the fact he still had a lobbying business and tom had to leave the Obama Administration. Weve been tough on all president s. Its not this is not a new e phenomenon. Whats new is maybe the president doesnt understand. Its what the president said about the use of sources. They just make them up when there are none. I saw one story recently where they said nine people have confirmed and i said give me a break because i know the people. I know who they talk to. There were no nine people. Tell us how anonymous sour sourcing works at the times. If you read the history of donald trump and his dealings with the press, including a story we publish today, hes an an anonymous source. Hes been an anonymous source without his career especially when it helped him and when it burnished his reputation. When you cover national security, when you cover the areas that were working on, people cannot attach their names to them. Some of most important stories of a generation whether its the New York Times is coverage of the nsa, whether its watergate have come from Anonymous Sources. These are not people who pull us aside because they want to screw donald trump. These are people who are worried about the direction of the government. These are people who are taking risks to talk to the media because they think these things need to be exposed. I have to say in an administration that has expressed so much distaste for the press and so much distaste for our role, are you surprised that some of the people who want to criticize the Administration Want to do it without their names attached . Im not. I think that youll see more use of Anonymous Sources. I think we have to be careful. I think its got to be on the most important stories but they are important. Were in a different climate now. The public editors would say we have to limit Anonymous Sources. Is that a problem as they continue to break news about the Trump Administrations various communications with russia but have to rely on Anonymous Sources. I think what we have to do is be really careful. We have to make sure, i always know who the sources are for these stories. Thats why im so confident pushing back at the Trump Administration when they criticize the stories. I think we have to be really careful but we have to own up to the fact that were going to be in an era as we have been before where Anonymous Sources will be important. As long as the stories are accurate, as long as they are true, which so far has been the case, and as long as we offer the right perspective, i think thats fine. Youve had no stories where you had to backtrack . Nope. No. Its not happened in trump era. We have been, every story by the way, i should say, news organizations are flawed institutions. If we get something wrong, we correct it right away. We own up to it. As long as you do that, i think people will believe youre honorable in your use after Anonymous Sources. Thank you for being here. Happy to be here. Thanks. After the break well bring the panel back and ill share my thoughts on why President Trump is trying to redefine fake news. Stay tuned. Well be right back. Theres no party like a lobster party, and this is the lobster party. Red lobsters lobsterfest