Perhaps the biggest threat that Donald Trump brings in his presidency is the war against information.

The phrase “alternative facts”, albeit an oxymoron, is as synonymous with Trump’s administration as “Yes We Can” was with former President Barack Obama. However, his administration reached a new low as they blocked news outlets such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Politico and BuzzFeed from an off camera White House meeting held in press secretary Sean Spicer’s office earlier today. In light of the banning, conservative outlets such as Breitbart News and The Washington Times were in attendance.

Reporters from these companies tried to attend the meeting and were turned away, saying that they weren’t on the list of outlets that were permitted to be present for the meeting. Four of the top five news outlets (CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox News) were invited. CNN said in a statement “”This is an unacceptable development by the Trump White House. Apparently this is how they retaliate when you report facts they don’t like. We’ll keep reporting regardless.” New York Times editor Dean Banquet spoke out, saying, “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.”

Protests have already been sparked by this decision. After learning that outlets were banned from the briefing, reporters from The Associated Press, Time magazine and USA Today decided not to attend the meeting in solidarity. The White House Correspondents Association protested the decision, citing the unfair nature of excluding certain media outlets.

The White House and Trump’s administration are standing firm on their decision. Spicer, when asked about why CNN and The New York Times were banned from the event, said, “We had it as pool, and then we expanded it, and we added some folks to come cover it. It was my decision to expand the pool.

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That sounds like a faulty answer to me…