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An American journalist has defended telling a White House spokeswoman she was "inflaming" tensions with the media during a press briefing, saying "I don't like bullies".
Brian Karem, White House correspondent for Playboy magazine, appeared on CNN and MSNBC on Wednesday morning to say: "I've been tired of being bullied. I've been tired of being blamed.
"I've been called an enemy of the people. We've been told that we're all fake media."
He went on to say "I've been browbeaten for six months and told I'm the enemy.
"And to be honest, it's not accurate, and I think it's driving a wedge between us and the public.
"I think it's undermining the fourth estate. I think it's very detrimental to the constitution and the foundation of the republic."
He said the reporters in the White House press briefing room are "merely trying … to do their job".
"And to be browbeaten every day and bullied isn't right, and it's got to stop."
He also told CNN a reporter would soon be assaulted as a result of the Trump administration's treatment of the media.
"There will come a time, it won't be too far off, I surmise. We will see a reporter is going to face physical harm because of this."
On Tuesday, Karem had interrupted deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders as she was criticising CNN and the media in general.
"I think we have gone to a place where if the media can't be trusted to report the news, then that's a dangerous place for America," Ms Sanders said.
"And I think if that's the place where certain outlets are going, particularly for the purpose of spiking ratings, and if that's coming directly from the top, then I think that's even more scary, and certainly more disgraceful."
She was referring to a recent incident where CNN published and then retracted a story alleging the Senate was investigating a meeting between a top Trump campaign staffer and an official from a Russian investment fund.
Three CNN employees involved with the story, including Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eric Lichtblau, stepped down over the mistake.
Ms Sanders told reporters to watch a video, "whether it's accurate or not", from conservative activist James O'Keefe showing a CNN producer criticising the network's treatment of the Trump-Russia story.
O'Keefe, who is known for ambushing people for comments and taping them without their knowledge, spoke to health reporter John Bonifield, who does not appear to be connected to CNN's political coverage.
"There's a video circulating now — whether it's accurate or not, I don't know — but I would encourage everybody in this room, and frankly everybody across this country, to take a look at it," Ms Sanders said.
"I think if it's accurate, it is a disgrace to all of media, all of journalism."
She went on to criticise the media for using unnamed sources, when Karem interrupted her.
"Come on, you're inflaming everybody right here, right now, with those words. This administration has done that as well," he said.
"Why in the name of heaven — any one of us are replaceable, and any one of us, if we don't get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us.
"You have been elected to serve for four years at least. There is no option other than that.
"We're here to ask you questions. You're here to provide the answers.
"And what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, 'See, once again, the President is right and everybody else out here is fake media.' And everybody out here is only trying to do their job."
Topics: world-politics, media, united-states