TRENTON — Gov. Chris Christie unleashed on New Jersey media outlets for reporting on a closed-door meeting the governor had with national press just before his State of the State address.

The governor, speaking Thursday night on his monthly radio show, criticized local media for acting “like children.”

Various media outlets, including NJ Advance Media, reported on Tuesday the governor invited five national outlets behind closed doors for an off-the-record briefing on the speech. New Jersey media outlets were excluded from the 30-minute talk from Christie on what he planned to say in his State of the State speech and a 30-minute question and answer session.

NJ Advance Media reported that holding a meeting with the national press just before his speech was another signal that Christie, who’s gearing up for a presidential campaign, has an eye on the White House.

Here was the exchange on the NJ 101.5 radio program between Christie and host Eric Scott:

Scott: You even angered the Statehouse press corps, you know. You invited the national media in, and they complained they didn't get invited in.

Christie: Yeah, could you find a group of more self-consumed people that on a day like that they're writing about themselves? Do you think the public cares a whit whether they got into a private meeting? And by the way, the other private meetings that they've had with me, which they've had within the last month, they didn't report on that, did they?

Scott: Well, they were off the record.

Christie: Well, you know, they can say they're talking about this, but we had a similar meeting with the governor a month ago. But they didn't, did they? Because that would be fair, and God knows they don't want to be that, so listen, if they want to act like children, let them act like children. That's the way it goes.



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The governor was talking about his Dec. 3 holiday party at the governor’s mansion in Princeton. Christie and First Lady Mary Pat hosted the party and opened it to various lawmakers, state officials and journalists, including some NJ Advance Media reporters and various other state outlets. The governor also invited nearly a dozen reporters to an off-the-record sit-down over the summer.

Asked after his State of the State address whether the decision to speak exclusively with national reporters was a sign he's putting more attention on exposing himself to a national audience, Christie responded: "No."

"You guys get plenty of time with me," he said. "Don't worry about it."

But local media's time with Christie has been significantly curtailed in recent months. His last Statehouse news conference was in September.

He held other question and answer sessions in Camden on Sept. 24 and Trenton on Oct. 9. However, he limited the number of questions reporters were permitted to ask at both events.

Other public appearances with the governor included either no press conferences or the opportunity to ask the governor only a question or two, including a limited availability during the governor's two-day trip to Canada or catching Christie in the hallway of the hotel in Florida where GOP officials gathered in November for a Republican Governors Association meeting.

But the governor hasn't shied away from his monthly Ask the Governor program on 101.5 FM or an hour-long interview he did with NJTV's Steve Adubato in December.

"It gives him cover," Carl Golden, a former spokesman for Republican Govs. Christie Todd Whitman and Thomas Kean, told New Jersey Advance Media earlier in the week, referring to Christie's one-on-one interviews.

"It gives him the benefit of being able to say, 'I haven't restricted my availability just because I didn't stick around for an hour (after a public event),'" Golden said. "It's a strategy. It gives him cover."

Golden says Christie, who he acknowledges is adept to "at dealing with the media and handling himself pretty well," has more control during the one-on-one interviews.

"He's much more in control in that environment," he said. "It allows the governor to very tightly control his message and it's not some type of free-wheeling thing where there are 20 reporters shouting questions at him."

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.