Fox News anchor Shepard Smith defended CNN on Friday after the news organization was barred from spokesman Sean Spicer’s question-and-answer session at the White House.



"For the record, 'fake news' refers to stories that are created, often by entities pretending to be news organizations, solely to draw clicks and views and are based on nothing of substance," Smith said during his program.



"In short, fake news is made up nonsense delivered for financial gain. CNN’s reporting was not fake news. Its journalists followed the same standards to which other news organizations, including Fox News, adhere," he added.





ADVERTISEMENT

Smith maintained that talking with White House officials off the record does not fit into the category of fake news.



"Senior administration officials regularly speak without attribution so that the public can be informed of what our government is doing, off the record," he said.

CNN was not the only news organization to be barred from attending Spicer’s "gaggle." Others included Politico, The Hill, BuzzFeed, the Daily Mail, BBC, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Daily News.CNN also criticized the administration's tactics Friday, calling it "an unacceptable development by the Trump White House."