Tillerson Draws Ire for Taking One Journalist on Trip to Asia

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is not playing nice with reporters who regularly cover the State Department, Politico reported.

Tillerson only took one reporter on his first trip to Asia as secretary of state, an awkward move for several reasons. The journalist, Erin McPike of Independent Journal Review, does not cover the State Department and will not be acting as a pool reporter, meaning she will not be sharing any of her reporting with other outlets. The IJR is also considered a conservative news outlet.

"The State Department Correspondents' Association is disappointed that Secretary Tillerson chose to travel this week to North Asia without a full contingent of the diplomatic press corps or even a pool reporter," the association said in a statement, per Politico.

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell and CNN's Michelle Kosinski are two reporters who have voiced their displeasure with Tillerson's actions.

"The State Department is the beacon of press freedom around the world. The message now to China in particular, when he gets to Beijing is that press freedom doesn't matter," Mitchell said in a recent TV appearance. "Up until now, Secretaries of State have made it a key demand that our press corps gets into meetings . . . that there be access for the media . . . A key component of foreign policy is being undercut by this."

Added Kosinski: "Is this really the message they want to send to the public, as well as other nations? Really? They must, on some level, realize that no one is fooled by the explanations."

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