Robert Reich on the orange monster’s attack on the press:

This is how authoritarian regimes operate:

Hours after Trump delivered a slashing attack on the news media today in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference – denouncing news organizations as “dishonest” purveyors of “fake news,” and mocking journalists for claiming free speech rights – the White House barred journalists from The New York Times, CNN, the LA Times, and Politico from attending a briefing by Trump’s press secretary. The White House only allowed in reporters from a handpicked group of news organizations, including Breitbart News, the One America News Network and The Washington Times, all with conservative leanings.

“Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like,” CNN said in a statement. The executive editor of the New York Times said “Nothing like this has ever happened at the White House in our long history of covering multiple administrations of different parties. We strongly protest the exclusion of The New York Times and the other news organizations. Free media access to a transparent government is obviously of crucial national interest.”

Reporters from Time magazine and The Associated Press, who were set to be allowed in, chose not to attend the briefing in protest of the White House’s actions. Good for them.

But journalists from ABC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Fox News who were allowed in didn’t join Time and the AP in boycotting it. I can understand Rupert Murdoch’s Fox and Wall Street Journal cooperating with Trump, but why ABC and CBS?

The only way to fight authoritarianism is for everyone who believes in freedom and democracy to stick together.