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I spent almost eight years working for the Obama administration, in the White House as the deputy press secretary, deputy communications director, communications director, and as the spokesperson at the State Department. We were not always perfect about how we handled media relations.

We also had rough press days when the front page of the newspaper was completely depressing and every story on cable news felt like a punch in the stomach.

We gave exclusive interviews and stories to reporters just as every White House does, but we never excluded a set of targeted reporters or any reporters from attending a briefing. Why? Because the back-and-forth, the arguments in briefings, are all a part of what you do in every White House, Democratic or Republican, to make the work of government accessible to the American people. It is part of democracy.

And they made folk heroes out of the toughest reporters at the State Department in Russia.

But I learned some of the most important lessons about the role of the media from these same reporters. Not only is being targeted by the Russian government a badge of honor, it highlighted what we have that they don't. A free press, and briefings in the White House, the State Department and the Department of Defense that are open to reporters from all different backgrounds, beliefs and even political persuasions.

So why did the Trump team exclude targeted reporters from a briefing Friday?

Here is my best educated guess:

The Trump administration wants to continue to delegitimize institutions like the mainstream media. The more they can confuse the lines between facts and truth, legitimate and illegitimate sources of information, the more they will be able to brainwash the small segment of the public they care about reaching.

Is this the worst thing the Trump administration has done this week? Probably not.

So why does it matter?

Because the way an administration interacts with the free press in the United States, through briefings and access to reporters -- even those who have reported unflattering, harsh and sometimes unfair stories -- sends a message to the rest of the world about how much we value the freedom of the press. And Russia shouldn't be our role model.

Excerpt from:
Jen Psaki: Without free press, democracy dies - CNN