State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus criticized the State Department press corps’ behavior during a briefing in a letter obtained by the Daily Caller.
Ortagus wrote that the State Department had “decided to roll out an incredibly important policy on designating more Chinese propaganda outlets as foreign missions.” She then detailed “an incident” where press corps members behaved inappropriately during the briefing, according to the letter.
“ Unfortunately, instead of focusing on this important policy, reporters decided to ask questions, make comments, and tweet about a newly published book, as opposed to keeping the briefing on topic,” Ortagus wrote in the letter. “Further, some compared the simple request to stay on topic, to the actions of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP].”
“In the year and a half that I have been Spokesperson, I have never experienced the issues that we experienced today, both during and especially after the call.”
The letter called the press corps’ actions “inappropriate” and added that the “off topic questions, comments, and tweets feign ignorance for reporters” who are known to be “extremely experienced in covering Asia, and certainly understand what life is like while living in China and covering CCP.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian takes a question at the daily media briefing in Beijing on April 8, 2020. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)
The State Department spokesperson’s letter was related to the decision to add four Chinese media outlets to a list of organizations deemed equal to foreign embassies. These outlets include CCTV, People’s Daily, Global Times and the China News Service. They were added to the list of existing organization due to close ties to the CCP.
Ortagus continued on to say the press corps’ actions during and after the call “reinforce the highly political environment that I strove to avoid in our foreign policy briefings.” (RELATED: Chinese Propaganda Outlet Has Paid US Newspapers $19 Million For Advertising, Printing)
“It is my hope that we can eventually go back to important policy briefings at State, focused on foreign affairs, at some point in the future,” she wrote.