Jeff Mason, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said Saturday that press access under President Trump had “been very good” before delving into tensions that exist between the media and the administration.
“That aspect is often overlooked,” he said of the access to Trump’s White House, citing examples of press conferences and access to meetings and interviews with senior administration officials.
Mason was speaking at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner in Washington, D.C., which Trump declined to attend.
Mason shifted tones in his remarks, saying that Trump had attempted to “delegitimize journalists.”
“We cannot ignore the rhetoric that has been employed by the president about who we are and what we do,” he said. “Freedom of the press is a building block of our democracy.”
“We are not fake news. We are not failing news organizations and we are not the enemy of the American people,” he said, referring to various references Trump has made about the media in rallies and on Twitter.
The comments received a long standing ovation from members of the media and policymakers attending the dinner.
WHCA President Jeff Mason gets a long standing ovation for saying, "We are not the enemy of the American people." #WHCD2017 pic.twitter.com/Q4miYgobKe— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 30, 2017
