Update, 9:45 a.m.: A spokesperson for the Trump campaign has told CNN that the meeting is back on, contradicting the president-elect’s previous statements.
A planned session between the leadership of The New York Times and Donald Trump is no longer on the schedule, according to an early-morning tweetstorm from the president-elect.
I cancelled today's meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
The failing @nytimes just announced that complaints about them are at a 15 year high. I can fully understand that – but why announce?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 22, 2016
The New York Times has made no official announcement regarding the amount of complaints its received, but Public Editor Liz Spayd did note a higher-than-usual number of reader grievances in a column this weekend.
Trump was slated to meet with New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger for an off-the-record chat later today and hold an on-the-record session with reporters and columnists as part of his latest media outreach campaign.
In a statement, The New York Times said it made no attempt to change the ground rules of the meeting:
We were unaware that the meeting was cancelled until we saw the President Elect’s tweet this morning. We did not change the ground rules at all and made no attempt to. They tried to yesterday — asking for only a private meeting and no on-the-record segment, which we refused to agree to. In the end, we concluded with them that we would go back to the original plan of a small off the record session and a larger on the record session with reporters and columnists.
New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet was slated to be at Trump’s on-the-record meeting, as were columnists Maureen Dowd and Ross Douthat, according to Politico. Managing Editor Joe Kahn and Political Editor Carolyn Ryan were also scheduled to be at the meeting.
On Monday, Trump held a meeting with news executives and anchors from America’s major broadcast networks. That discussion was off-the-record, but Trump reportedly promised better access to his administration while blasting executives for their networks’ coverage of his campaign.
