News/Commentary

NYP reporter rips into Karine Jean-Pierre for ignoring him: ‘You should be ashamed!’

October 12, 2023 | | Print Article

African reporter Simon Ateba isn’t the only one being ignored by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

On Wednesday, New York Post reporter Steve Nelson blasted Jean-Pierre for again passing over him.

“You haven’t called on me in two seasons, Karine,” Nelson stated as he was once again snubbed by the smug press sec.

“I’m not calling on you today,” she shot back before telling another reporter, “Go ahead, sir.”

“You should be ashamed of that!” Nelson exclaimed as Jean-Pierre continued to instruct another reporter to “go ahead, go ahead.”

“That shows disrespect to a free and independent media!” Nelson fumed. “It’s blacklisting one of the nation’s largest and most-read newspapers, Karine. “That shows contempt for a free and independent press!”

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Jean-Pierre remained unmoved.

“Go ahead,” she again directed another reporter. “I’m calling on somebody I haven’t called on in a long time, as well.”

Following the heated briefing, Nelson took to X to express his frustration.

“The @NYPost is our country’s oldest daily newspaper,” he wrote. “We have 4th-largest print circulation and only NY Times has more web traffic.”

“@PressSec last called on me in May, and on a colleague in July,” he said. “The May exchange was also about press freedom issues.”

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The ongoing feud between Today News Africa’s Ateba and Jean-Pierre has been the subject of many headlines.

As BizPac Review reported, in August, Ateba filed a “First Amendment Rights lawsuit” against Jean-Pierre and the Secret Service, alleging they wrongfully revoked his press badge. According to the Cameroon native, the press secretary has made a point of overlooking him during press briefings.

“After years of discrimination and targeting, I just filed my First Amendment Rights lawsuit against @whitehouse and the @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre,” Ateba wrote on X at the time. 

The Center For American Liberty took up Ateba’s case which challenged the White House’s new “hard pass” criteria.

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“The White House Press Office recently revised its credentialing criteria for a media ‘hard pass’ this past May in a brazen attempt to exclude Mr. Ateba from the White House briefing room,” the lawsuit alleges. “As of August 1, 2023, over 440 previously credentialed White House reporters no longer have ‘hard pass’ access to the White House media facilities under the new requirements.”

“While other reporters were affected by the revisions,” the complaint continues, “excluding Mr. Ateba was the primary objective because the White House no longer wanted to deal with him or his questions.”

Like Ateba, Nelson has been critical of the Biden and his administration.

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On X, many noted how degraded the role of the White House Press Secretary has become.

“Unfortunately, most Americans no longer take the White House Press Secretary position seriously any longer,” wrote one user. “It was at one time a critical function of our government, now it is embarrassing to witness and the world sees it.”

 

Melissa Fine
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