© Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty ImagesReporters ask questions during a press conference in Washington, DC
On his top-ranked radio show, Levin mocked media that has "circled the wagons" around CNN's Kaitlan Collins who asked Trump, sitting with European Union Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker, about tapes the cable network had of the president allegedly talking with his former lawyer about payments to a Playboy model.
The White House claimed the questions were rude and came after the press pool was asked to leave the Oval Office. As a result, they barred her from a subsequent event, prompting most media including Fox to defend Collins.
C-SPAN pulled out this section of the scrum showing that the event was over when Collins started asking her questions. Juncker appears to be chuckling at the scene as aides try to get reporters to leave.
Levin raised the double standard and the handling of conservative press by the former Obama administration and how when they were targeted the liberal media didn't rally for them.
He noted, for example, that three reporters from conservative outlets that endorsed Sen. John McCain's presidential bid in 2008 were refused entry on the Obama campaign plane. "So he gets rid of the conservatives, gets rid of them, and by the way Glamour magazine and others were allowed to stay on the plane," said Levin, the latest member of the Radio Hall of Fame.
He also played recordings of a conservative reporter, Neil Munro, then with the Daily Caller, who on June 15, 2012 interrupted Obama to ask questions about his new policy of opening the door to illegal immigrant minors.
"Obama cut him off and shut him down and the media agree with him, no circling of the wagons around Mr. Munro," said Levin.
"I don't remember news organizations putting out statements defending Neil Munro, do you? And he wasn't in the Oval Office, the time wasn't cut off, Obama wasn't with another foreign leader, he wasn't being asked about prosecutors and such investigating him and such because that didn't happen of course because he's Obama, they'd never do that, but he asked a policy question," said Levin.
He also noted that many said that Munro's tactic was racist. "Munro's interruption was racist," said Levin, after playing comments attacking the reporter for asking Obama while he was speaking if his new policy was fair to American workers.
In defending CNN, Levin noted that some reporters said asking a president anything was their First Amendment right. Said Levin, "They love the Constitution except when it comes to most of it." And, he added, "There's other parts of the First Amendment that they don't believe in, like religious liberty."
He also played CNN Wolf Blitzer's reaction to the barring of its reporter. It's something, he said, "that you would expect to see in some totalitarian regime." Said Levin, "I'm surprised he didn't say Hitler's Third Reich."
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Paul Bedard is a longtime D.C. reporter who joined the Washington Examiner in 2012 after penning U.S. News & World Report's premiere political column, "Washington Whispers," for more than a decade. In addition to his Washington Secrets column, check out his signature feature, "Mainstream Media Scream." @SecretsBedard
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