AMERICAN PRESIDENTS LEAD BY EXAMPLE...:

It is highly unusual for a presidential administration to retaliate against reporters by restricting their access, particularly at a closely scrutinized foreign summit meeting. Given the backdrop -- a United States president meeting with the totalitarian leader of a country with no independent media -- the move sent a starkly different message from those delivered in such settings by Mr. Trump's predecessors, who often sought to encourage expressions of press freedom when meeting with representatives of autocratic regimes.

Shortly before the dinner was to start, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, informed the group of journalists traveling with Mr. Trump that only photographers and television-camera operators would be allowed to attend the event, excluding reporters for several print and radio news outlets.

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