White House correspondent Simon Ateba is known for confronting White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre — but his latest spat with the press secretary was mysteriously cut from the live stream, and the White House is blaming a “technical glitch.”
Tucker Carlson speaks with Simon Ateba, a Cameroonian journalist who got yelled at by Karine Jean-Pierre at yesterday's White House press briefing. pic.twitter.com/WzktlcUTdT
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 10, 2022
Ateba, a correspondent for Today News Africa, argued with Jean-Pierre during Monday’s press briefing — causing the press secretary to threaten to walk out. However, this exchange was mysteriously cut from the live stream of the briefing.
In a tweet on Tuesday evening, Ateba asked whether he should sue the White House for their actions.
“Should I sue? A friend just reminded me that the ‘@WhiteHouse editing out what you said (to @PressSec) yesterday during the briefing violates the Federal Records Act. The @BarackObama State Department did the same in 2016,’” he wrote.
First of all, kindly support my work here: https://t.co/LSG66yzrf6, there is massive censorship going on against independent journalists.
Second: Should I sue? A friend just reminded me that the "@WhiteHouse editing out what you said (to @PressSec) yesterday during the briefing… pic.twitter.com/G5jNtIfOUM
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 27, 2023
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Ateba discussed the struggles he has faced throughout his tenure in the White House briefing room while Biden administration officials appear to actively avoid taking accountability.
“I’m Black, I’m an immigrant and I’m the little guy…I’m just trying to do my job,” he told the outlet.
In his latest battle with Jean-Pierre, Ateba asked: “Are you going to take questions from me because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months?”
The press secretary responded by threatening to walk out, stating: “If this continues we’re gonna end the press briefing… You’re being incredibly rude.”
The argument — which included another correspondent that Jean-Pierre often calls on, April Ryan, siding with the press secretary — appeared as though it was erased from the record on the live stream.
According to Fox News Digital, after they reached out for comment from the White House about the mysterious disappearance of the exchange, “the portion of the missing video was then restored to the stream. The White House told Fox News that the portion missing was caused by an error with the encoder that feeds the live stream to YouTube.”
Ateba again called out the White House for their “technical glitch” claim on Twitter — arguing that they “pretended” there was a problem with the feed.
“Outrage after the @WhiteHouse removed my interaction with White House @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre during our press briefing yesterday, Monday,” he wrote, arguing that the White House “pretended that the feed had a problem on YouTube when we were live, then continued broadcasting after our exchange, without that portion of the exchange. In doing so, they violated the Public Records Act. They only restored that portion after they were caught and called out, long after the briefing. It was a total fraud. Fox News just made that their number-one story tonight. Really a pity. Total fraud.”
Outrage after the @WhiteHouse removed my interaction with White House @PressSec Karine Jean-Pierre during our press briefing yesterday, Monday. What they did was..they pretended that the feed had a problem on YouTube when we were live, then continued broadcasting after our… pic.twitter.com/f5Hwcxrkun
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 28, 2023
This is not the first time that Ateba called out Jean-Pierre for refusing to call on him during a briefing. In March, while the cast of a television show was visiting the White House, he blasted the press secretary for “making a mockery of the First Amendment.”
The cast of Ted Lasso is at the White House Press Briefing and it began with @simonateba telling Jean-Pierre "you're making a mockery of the First Amendment." pic.twitter.com/PxZnRBvTWI
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 20, 2023
The attempts to suppress Ateba have gone so far that he was even blocked from attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April — becoming the only member to face such suppression.
