New York Times columnist David Brooks said Friday that the media has ignored conservative viewpoints for decades and that even though he is “appalled” that President Donald Trump banned Associated Press reporters from White House briefings, he can understand why they did it.

The AP was “indefinitely” barred from White House conferences after drawing the president’s ire by declining to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America – a change adopted by the government after Trump’s executive order.

The battle has escalated over the week, and prompted outrage among other members of the press over freedom of the press, free speech, and even the legality of such a ban.

On PBS NewsHour later in the day, Brooks said he doesn’t agree with Trump limiting the AP’s access at the White House, but that he does understand it.

PBS anchor Amna Nawaz asked Brooks for his take on the controversy.

“I’m a little less harsh on the Trump administration,” he said. “Listen, I lived through the end of the Biden administration where there was almost no press access to the guy. And so administrations manipulate the press. That’s part of the job.”

Brooks added:

If they don’t want to talk to the AP, fine. The AP can do its own reporting. And so I’ve lived through all these administrations. And I think the deeper problem here, and this is our business. I hate to comment on the media because I’ve spent my life in it. But we have not represented enough Trump voices over the last 40 years – enough working-class voices over the last 40 years. And so if we had done that, maybe some of the hostility that’s come our way wouldn’t be there. And so I am appalled by what Trump is doing. But I understand sort of why he’s doing it.

Watch above via PBS.

The post NYT Columnist Makes Case For Trump Banning AP – Says Media Earned ‘Hostility’ After Ignoring Conservatives For Decades first appeared on Mediaite.

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