What allegedly happened at a routine White House briefing yesterday may be the latest skirmish in the larger conflict between the D.C. insider class and outsider challengers.
Tensions between legacy Washington, D.C., media and new-entrant reporters who have been granted access under the Trump Administration came to a head Friday in an alleged attack leveled at Gateway Pundit’s Lucian Wintrich by Fox News Radio reporter Jon Decker.
As reporters entered Friday’s White House press briefing, witnesses reported that Decker loudly, and allegedly physically, accosted Wintrich personally, calling him a “Nazi,” and saying of the site, “they hate blacks, Jews, and Hispanics.”
Wintrich asserted that Decker physically blocked him from entering and that he will be pressing charges against the Fox reporter.
After the incident, Politico reported that Decker’s actions were applauded by several White House reporters, who “shook Decker’s hands as he walked back to the Fox News radio booth.”
Decker also sent an email to the entire White House reporter email listserv, noting that the White House “has admitted Gateway Pundit into today’s White House Press Briefing.”While some in the White House briefing room say the White House should be open to any and all outlets, others have expressed concern with certain outlets being legitimized via their White House credentials.Fox News confirmed Decker was reacting to previous tweets Wintrich had posted. According to a White House Correspondent in the room, several reporters shook Decker’s hands as he walked back to the Fox News radio booth.
The recent admittance of Gateway Pundit and other new outlets to the White House press pool has ruffled many feathers across the ideological spectrum. Gateway Pundit has been attacked by several left-leaning and legacy media outlets and D.C. insiders as “fake news.”
Gateway Pundit, ranked 1,242 in terms of its internet traffic, saw its profile rise most recently due to its 2016 election coverage supporting Trump. Jim Hoft, the founder of Gateway Pundit, recently announced plans to host a rival dinner (the Real News Correspondents’ Dinner) to the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, the latter of which President Trump had announced he will not be attending.
Decker, who is on the board of the White House Correspondents Association and has been a member of the White House Press Corps since 1995, is also an adjunct lecturer at Georgetown University.
Born and raised in Washington, D.C., his resume includes such as outlets as PBS, NBC, and Reuters. He received his B.A. and a masters degree from the University of Pennsylvania, his law degree from George Washington University (in D.C.), and attended the Sorbonne in Paris.
Bretibart News White House reporter Lee Stranahan called the accusations against Decker “serious,” suggesting that his credentials should be revoked, and another correspondent who witnessed the events, Andrew Feinberg, tweeted that despite his dislike of Gateway Pundit, its reporter had a right to attend the press briefing:
Decker appears not to agree that outlets like Gateway Pundit enjoys such a “right.”
An email to Decker seeking comment has not been returned. But in a statement to Business Insider, Decker denied any physical contact took place:
Decker said in a statement provided to Business Insider that he had a “conversation with a representative from the online publication Gateway Pundit” but that at no time did he get physical with him.”The conversation was straightforward and direct,” he said. “I also informed the full White House pool that this representative was present in the Briefing Room. At no time did I accost or assault this individual. More than a dozen witnesses will attest to this fact.”A Fox News representative also denied the assault allegations to Business Insider and said that Decker, a lawyer, was upset with some of Wintrich’s previous tweets and sought only to notify other members of the press corps that the Gateway Pundit writer was attending the daily briefing.
Why would Decker feel the need to announce to the room that someone from Gateway Pundit was there?
This sounds like D.C. media trying to control the process and staking out White House press briefing seats as its own territory.
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