Story highlights Jen Psaki: The administration's approach to the press risks following the model of Russia

Despite disagreements, the Obama administration never excluded a set of reporters, she writes

Jen Psaki, a CNN political commentator and spring fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, served as the White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman during the Obama administration. Follow her: @jrpsaki. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) Is it typical to target specific media outlets and exclude them from attending a White House briefing? The short answer is no.

I spent almost eight years working for the Obama administration, in the White House as the deputy press secretary, deputy communications director, communications director, and as the spokesperson at the State Department. We were not always perfect about how we handled media relations.

We had our fair share of disagreements with reporters and even with entire media outlets like Fox News. Even the reported exclusion of Fox News in 2009 was related to network interviews by Ken Feinberg, an employee of the Treasury Department. It was not related to a briefing for the White House press corps. And in the end, an interview was offered to Fox. President Obama even did a lengthy interview with Chris Wallace during his final year in office.

We also had rough press days when the front page of the newspaper was completely depressing and every story on cable news felt like a punch in the stomach.

Jen Psaki

We gave exclusive interviews and stories to reporters just as every White House does, but we never excluded a set of targeted reporters or any reporters from attending a briefing. Why? Because the back-and-forth, the arguments in briefings, are all a part of what you do in every White House, Democratic or Republican, to make the work of government accessible to the American people. It is part of democracy.

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