President Donald Trump on Thursday gave an extendedpress conference blasting the media, occasionally seeming to anticipate how reporters would cover the briefing.After briefly announcing his new pick to lead the US Department of Labor, the president launched into an extended tiradelamenting media coverage, particularly taking aim at reports of the leaks about Trump campaign's relationship with Russia and Trump's calls with foreign leaders."I turn on the TV, open the newspapers, and I see stories of chaos, chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite. This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine," Trump said.At Thursday's press conference, he fell back on similar attacks on media, rattling off attacks on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal for reporting onintelligence and law enforcement probes into his campaign's ties with Russia.The presidentslammed the press, saying media outletswere "out of control," insistingthat reporters "should be ashamed of themselves" for reporting on the leaks."The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake," Trump said.As the news conference continued, the president began a running commentary of reporters who he saw as sympathetic versus those who asked him tough questions."I want a friendly reporter. Are you a friendly reporter'" Trump asked at one point.Trump particularly took aim atCNN, claimingwithout singling out any particular specific issuesthathe sees "many untruthful things" in the network's reporting."You look at your show that goes on at 10 in the evening. That is a constant hit. The panel is almost always exclusively anti-Trump. The good news is he doesn't have good ratings," Trump said.The president continued:"When I go to rallies they start screaming at CNN, they want to throw their placards at CNN. I think you would do much better by being different. But just take a look at some of your shows in the morning and the evening, if a guest comes out and says something positive about me, it's brutal. Now they'll take this news conferenceI'm actually having a very good time. Don't forget, that's how I won, I used to give a news conference every day. That's how I won, with news conference, and probably speeches. I certainly didn't win with people listening to you people. But I'm having a good time. Tomorrow they will say 'Donald Trump rants and raves.' I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you people."Though reportingon his statements and internal staff striferegularly provoked verbal outrage from Trump on the campaign trail, he's been equally vocally outraged at the media in his first weeks in the White House.Visiting the CIA, the president called journalists "the most dishonest people on earth" for correctly reporting the size of his inauguration crowd.SEE ALSO:We asked 11 media outlets how their coverage has changed since Trump's election ' here's what they saidJoin the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Animated map shows the best and worst states to raise your family
Click here to read full news..
