Trump blocks select media outlets from press briefing

President Donald Trump blocked a number of news outlets from covering White House press secretary Sean Spicer's question-and-answer session, media reports said.

Spicer on Friday afternoon, decided to hold an off-camera "gaggle" with reporters inside his office instead of the traditional on-camera briefing in the Press Briefing Room, The Hill magazine reported.

Among the outlets not permitted to cover the gaggle were news organisations that Trump has singled out for criticism, including CNN, The New York Times, The Hill, Politico, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, BBC, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News, etc.

Several outlets which were allowed into Spicer's office, include Breitbart, the Washington Times, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Reuters and Bloomberg..

The White House Correspondents' Association, a non-profit organisation of journalists who cover the White House, sharply criticized the decision.

"The WHCA board is protesting strongly against how today's gaggle is being handled by the White House," the association's President Jeff Mason said in a statement.

"We encourage the organisations that were allowed in to share the material with others," he added. "The board will be discussing this further with White House staff."

A White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.

Fake news is enemy of the people: Trump

Washington, Feb 25 (IANS) Continuing his battle with mainstream media outlets, US President Donald Trump slammed "fake news" and said journalists should not be allowed to publish stories based on anonymous sources.

"A few days ago I called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are - they are the enemy of the people," USA Today quoted Trump as saying at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference here.

Trump claimed that "the fake news media doesn't tell the truth", adding that reporters should not be allowed to use anonymous sources, and "we're going to do something about it".

He also said major media outlets made up polls during the campaign to give the impression that he had no chance.

"Take a look at some of these polls. That were so bad, so inaccurate. And what that does is it creates a false narrative. It creates this narrative that it's just like we're not going to win," the President added.