Access restrictions targeting critical outlets

Access restrictions targeting critical outlets are the selective rationing of press access — interviews, embeds, briefings, document production, official statements — based on the outlet's coverage rather than the legitimacy of the outlet's claim to access. Concrete forms include the channeling of administration interviews exclusively to friendly outlets, the freezing out of specific reporters from agency communications, and the granting of advance copy of documents only to outlets the administration prefers. A single incident with documented connection to coverage is recordable on the same terms as a pattern; the inclusion bar is whether the restriction is coverage-tied, not whether multiple incidents have accumulated.