Atlantic staff writer David Brooks appeared Friday on PBS NewsHour and criticized both a White House decision to exclude some news organizations and the press itself. He called the exclusion of outlets such as CNN ridiculous because a democracy requires access for audiences who choose those channels and because the press belongs to the public rather than any president.

Brooks said that since 2015 the mainstream press discovered that criticism of Donald Trump boosted audience numbers and that this pattern now functions as an economic incentive even while journalists still try to report fairly. He also described off-the-record meals with Democratic officials over the past two years in which the former professional separation between reporters and those officials had largely vanished, unlike the separation still kept from Republicans. He argued journalists must restore that separation because they cover politicians rather than support them.