June 13, 2016

Donald Trump Just Banned the Washington Post From Covering His Campaign

The Post joins a long list of blacklisted publications (including Mother Jones).

Carlo Allegri/ZUMA

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Donald Trump issued an edict on his Facebook page Monday afternoon: The Washington Post will no longer be credentialed to cover his campaign. “Based on the incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting of the record setting Trump campaign,” Trump wrote, “we are hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post.”

Trump appeared to take issue with the Post‘s characterization of his response to this weekend’s Orlando shooting, in which he suggested that President Barack Obama had some involvement in the attacks, according to the Post. The paper now joins an extensive list of publications that have incurred Trump’s wrath—though this is the first time his campaign has publicly acknowledged a blanket ban on allowing a media outlet to cover his campaign. As I reported in March, Trump’s campaign has regularly denied press credentials to outlets including Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post, the Des Moines Register, Univision, National Review, and Mother Jones.

For a time, being denied credentials was more of a hassle than a true impediment for reporters seeking to cover Trump’s events. When I’ve been turned down for credentials in the past, I’ve waited in the general public line, which is sometimes hours long, and still been able to attend Trump’s events. Recently, however, the Trump campaign ejected a Politico reporter from an event in California after he entered the event with the general public.

Update: Shortly after Trump made his pronouncement on Facebook, Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron fired back.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

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