Blacklist...

Trump campaign ends media blacklist

By Hadas Gold

Donald Trump's presidential campaign is ending its blacklist of news outlets, the campaign has confirmed.

The blacklist has been in effect at the Trump campaign for nearly a year, with media outlets left out of official events for perceived slights in how they reported on his campaign.

The banned outlets at times included POLITICO, The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and the Des Moines Register. Sometimes journalists for the outlets would be able to attend campaign events as members of the general public, but in several cases they were still removed from the venue when security realized they were press. A Washington Post reporter was once patted down at a Mike Pence event to make sure he did not have a cell phone or laptop on him at an event.

“Revoking press credentials was imprudent, pointless, and offensive from the start," Washington Post editor Marty Baron told POLITICO in a statement. "We’re pleased to see the ban come to a long-overdue end.”

"Access to a major party’s presidential campaign events shouldn’t be a favor to be granted or withheld to the independent media depending on how the candidate views the coverage, and we are glad the Trump campaign has decided to take this step,” said Susan Glasser, POLITICO’s editor. “Our reporters are looking forward to doing their job covering the Trump campaign — as they’ve been doing all year."

"We're proud of our coverage of Donald Trump and his campaign, and we wouldn't change the way we approach that work regardless of the access we have, but we are happy the blacklist is over," said Katherine Miller, politics editor for BuzzFeed, in a statement.

"While we are glad that the blacklist has been lifted, it's important to remember that this was an absurd policy to begin with and a dangerous precedent for any campaign to have set" said Sam Stein, senior politics editor for The Huffington Post. "We will continue to cover the Trump campaign as we have always covered it. And we look forward to the candidate sitting down for an interview with the Huffington Post in the near future."

The blacklist began eroding over the last few weeks. Over a month ago, Pence said the campaign was looking into ending the blacklist. Last week, a print press pool for Trump's campaign launched, and included blacklisted outlets, but the campaign did not at the time answer questions as to whether those same blacklisted outlets would be allowed at campaign events on days that they were not the press pooler.

Whether Trump will have a full protective pool, where the press travels with the candidate on his plane, is a question left still unanswered. Clinton started her protective pool this week, leading to far more face time with reporters who cover her. A Trump campaign spokeswoman did not respond to follow up questions about whether a protective pool will be put in place.