The Trump administration’s adversarial treatment of the news media continued in the aftermath of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s dust up with an NPR reporter. The State Department eliminated another NPR reporter, Michele Keleman, from its press pool for an upcoming trip to Ukraine. (Politico, January 28, 2020, by Matthew Choi)
Pompeo’s troubles with NPR began with his tirade directed at NPR host Mary Louise Kelly after an interview in which she asked Pompeo about his role in the Ukraine scandal. Pompeo said he was upset that she asked the question when he thought he would only be asked about Iran. He also criticized NPR for its bias in covering the Trump administration. (The Washington Post, January 27, 2020, by Editorial Board)
NPR CEO John Lansing said Kelly had exchanged e-mails with a State Department aide that made it clear that she would be asking questions about Ukraine. Lansing also disputed Pompeo’s claim that the interview was off the record. “It’s not unusual for there to be tension between government officials and journalists,” said Lansing, “because journalists are – as I said, their duty is to ask difficult questions. And it could be painful, sometimes, to have to answer difficult questions. And so the idea that there’s tension there is common, both in the international media space and in the domestic media space. But this goes well beyond tension. This goes towards intimidation. And let me just say this. We will not be intimidated.” (NRP, January 25, 2020, interview by NRP host Michel Martin)
For prior FAC coverage on the issue, click here, here, and here.