The Trump administration has granted press credentials to Lucian B. Wintrich, the Washington correspondent for Gateway Pundit, to attend White House press briefings
and ask questions of the press secretary, Sean M. Spicer.
In a telephone interview from the West Wing, Mr. Wintrich, 28, said he would “be reporting far more fairly than a lot of the very left-wing outlets
that are currently occupying the briefing room.” He added, “We will be doing a little trolling of the media in general here.”
Asked what kind of trolling his fellow White House correspondents might want to prepare for, Mr. Wintrich paused.
Bloggers and pundits have been granted access to White House briefings in previous administrations,
and Mr. Spicer in recent weeks has taken questions from conservative talk-radio hosts and reporters at local broadcast affiliates.
The Gateway Pundit, a provocative conservative blog, gained notice last year for its fervent pro-Trump coverage
and its penchant for promoting false rumors about voter fraud and Hillary Clinton’s health that rocketed around right-wing websites.
But the inclusion of Gateway Pundit has raised concerns
that the Trump administration, which has called the news media “the opposition party,’’ is favoring outlets more sympathetic to its views.
On Monday, some journalists complained after Mr. Trump took questions at his news conference only from a local broadcast journalist
and a reporter from The Daily Caller, a conservative news site.