It’s tempting to take Friday’s petty decision by the Trump White House to bar certain news organizations from a briefing — something no administration of either party has ever done — as a backhanded compliment to the reporters whose honest work provoked the president’s latest foot-stamping tantrum.

It is certainly that. And in itself it is no huge blow to the republic. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, chose to bar The New York Times, CNN, Politico, Buzzfeed News and The Los Angeles Times, but other trustworthy news organizations were nevertheless in the room, and they can be relied upon to accurately report what they learned.

Yet the move was also an unmistakable insult to democratic ideals. Don’t just take our word for it — take Mr. Spicer’s. In December, he told Politico that the Trump White House would never ban a news outlet. “Conservative, liberal or otherwise, I think that’s what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship,” he said.

Huh. Not during Watergate, Iran-contra, the Monica Lewinsky affair or any number of other scandals or crises has a president of either party ever barred an accredited news organization from a White House briefing. Some presidents may have longed to punish particular news organizations or reporters, but aides have generally found ways to protect their bosses from such self-defeating moves, fearing that such vindictiveness would just make their bosses look small.