Several journalists from establishment media outlets whined on Twitter Thursday after The Daily Caller received a question at a presser with President Trump.
The Daily Caller’s Saagar Enjeti was called on during a joint presser with the president and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and asked if Trump would ever invite North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to the United States. Trump said he may even invite him to the White House, but reporters from the likes of CNN and Yahoo News were more interested in critiquing the fact that Trump called on TheDC in the first place.
The two media outlets chosen by Trump to ask questions at this event were Fox News and the Daily Caller.
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) June 7, 2018
Trump gives his second question to the right-wing Daily Caller, as he did at another press conference this year.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 7, 2018
Trump chooses Fox and Daily Caller for his two questions.
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) June 7, 2018
Enjeti defended himself and noted that his question elicited “major news.”
The implication of these tweets is that it is some sort of sin to even call on me. Notice they never take issue with the question or the major news they elicit pic.twitter.com/ea1t0r5saF
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) June 7, 2018
Other journalists quickly came to the defense of TheDC and Enjeti and criticized Sciutto, Dale and Walker for playing the gatekeepers of journalism.
If CNNers wants to take pot shots at outlets like the @DailyCaller for being called on by the President, then why in the world have they been hiring reporters from places like the @DailyCaller, @TheIJR, and @dcexaminer??
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 7, 2018
We may never find out what happened to Melania https://t.co/ACxZukHVHE
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) June 7, 2018
why are we still complaining about this? complain about the questions journalists ask, not about where the journalists work. https://t.co/HNr6Fdqznp
— kelly cohen (@politiCOHEN_) June 7, 2018
Former Obama official complains about not being called.
If the questions were bad, I would understand but @esaagar and @johnrobertsFox asked good questions. So this complaint is basically the “worthy” reporters weren’t called on. https://t.co/3Hyzm8em6e
— Andrew Kugle (@AndrewJKugle) June 7, 2018
…This is an unnecessarily longwinded way of me saying that @esaagar was one of the better people Trump coulda called on in the pool, so who cares
— Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24) June 7, 2018
You asked Trump about Harambe
— Peter J. Hasson (@peterjhasson) June 7, 2018