(US, politics, journalism) An event in which photographers and other members of the news media are allowed to visit briefly with the US President or other top US government officials, especially on the occasion of a meeting with leaders or high-level officials from other countries
The media that was “speculating” about Tillerson were the New York Times and CNN, which wrote articles parroting what Trump administration officials told them what was going to happen.
As Josh Marshall and others have pointed out (though, ahem, not in these words) - how goddamn stupid do the NYT and CNN have to be to keep falling for this crap? Trump is using them to push his own agenda, then pulling the football away and calling the bogus stories he planted “fake news.” And they keep taking the bait.
One person close to the White House described the mood this way: “What they’re freaked out about is that there are no leaks. Papadopoulos didn’t leak. Flynn didn’t leak. They feel like they can’t trust anyone. Their own counsel didn’t know.”