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No problem in West Wing, media acting like gossip dailies:

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Press Trust of India Washington
Last Updated : Feb 19 2017 | 11:02 PM IST
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus today refuted reports about discord within the White House, saying the mainstream American media is acting like "gossip dailies".
"The truth is, is that, we don't have problems in the West Wing. I mean you read about all these stories that I don't get along with (White House Senior Counselor Steve) Bannon...Actually, we've really jelled as a team and we get along great and we're working well together," the White House Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, told NBC News.
Priebus criticised media for the reports, which he claimed were false.
"I think you should be concerned about mainstream news outlets that are acting like, you know, Washington daily gossip magazines instead of the way it used to be where you would get a few sources on the record -- yes, you will need some background, and maybe, yes, you will need some anonymous sources," he told Fox News in another interview.
"But to accuse an organisation of being in constant contact with Russian spies is outrageous. Every day, it's something different. It's some other source that is absolutely untrue," he said.
Priebus said there are certain things that are happening in the news that just aren't honest.

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"We are not talking about everyone. We're not talking about all news, but we're talking about something that I guess he's termed as fake news," he said.
Giving an example, Priebus alleged that The New York Times put out an article with no direct sources that said the Trump campaign had constant contacts with Russian spies.
"We have now all kinds of people looking into this. I can assure you and I have been approved to say this -- that the top levels of the intelligence community have assured me that that story is not only inaccurate, but it's grossly overstated and it was wrong. And there's nothing to it," he said.
And the next day, he said, 'The Wall Street Journal' puts out a story that says that they have anonymous sources that say that the intelligence community is purposefully cutting out material from Trump's briefing material that he gets everyday.
"That then proved to be untrue. All of the agencies put out a statement saying it was totally inaccurate," he asserted.
Priebus told NBC News that the Trump Administration does not believe everyone is lousy in the media.
"We don't believe everyone is lousy in the media. We don't believe everything is bad. But there are some things that are really bad...He categorises that as fake news. What we've been through over the last 10 days has been unbelievable. The leaks. The fake stories. The anonymous accusations. That stuff is bad and that's what he's referring to," Priebus said.

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First Published: Feb 19 2017 | 11:02 PM IST

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