Townhall reporter/video czar Kevin McMahon noticed that when watching video of White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s Monday briefing on the White House's official YouTube account, a part including an exchange with Today News Africa reporter Simon Ateba had been cut.
Ateba is one of the few journalists to regularly challenge Jean-Pierre and ask her actual questions, which has often led to tense exchanges between the two when she replies with the non-answers she’s become known for.
In that briefing, there was a brief moment of chaos when Ateba, who hasn’t been called on for a question in nine months, called out Jean-Pierre for ignoring him. “Are you going to take questions from me because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months?” In response, Jean-Pierre threatened to end the briefing early, telling Ateba “If this continues we’re gonna end the press briefing…you’re being incredibly rude.” This exchange initially appeared to be removed from the record online.Check for yourself at 1:02:00https://t.co/9KadnbGt10
— Kevin McMahon (@Kevin__McMahon) June 26, 2023
When reporters reached out to the White House for comment, the exchange mysteriously reappeared, and the White House blamed the initial removal on a technical glitch. As one should, Ateba remains skeptical that a technical glitch only kicked in when he specifically was speaking.
First of all, kindly support my work here: https://t.co/LSG66yzrf6, there is massive censorship going on against independent journalists.
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 27, 2023
Second: Should I sue? A friend just reminded me that the "@WhiteHouse editing out what you said (to @PressSec) yesterday during the briefing… pic.twitter.com/G5jNtIfOUM
Matt Palumbo is the author of Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers: How the Left Hijacked and Weaponized the Fact-Checking Industry and The Man Behind the Curtain: Inside the Secret Network of George Soros
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