Today News Africa reporter Simon Ateba threatened to take the Washington Post to court if the paper didn’t retract a recent profile on him in a statement to Fox News Digital.
“I will take the Washington Post to court if they fail to retract their character assassination against me,” Ateba said in a statement Friday. “It would be a lesson for them to be balanced and not just do the bidding of the State and the [White House Correspondents Association] to crush the little guy.”
Ateba, an outspoken journalist who has repeatedly clashed with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during briefings and irked his fellow reporters, unleashed on The Washington Post for recent articles on his conduct.
“I have lost all respect for the Washington Post,” Ateba wrote. “Journalism has gone to the dogs.”
The Washington Post has featured Ateba in two recent stories. While Ateba suggested to Fox News Digital that he was not asked for comment by the Post for the outlet’s stories on his White House troubles, Ateba is quoted directly in an article from July 8 by the paper.
“In his brief comments to The Washington Post, he wrote that his efforts to report on the White House ‘have been met with racism and discrimination from the Left, as well as misleading articles that fail to address the underlying story of discrimination against me,'” the Post reported.
Reporter Paul Farhi added, “[I]t’s not really clear what questions Ateba has been seeking to ask [at briefings]. His serial interruptions typically begin and end with a protest about how the press secretary hasn’t allowed him to ask his question.”
In another story last week, the Post detailed a recent warning from the White House that it would retract Ateba’s press pass if he continued to interrupt at briefings. The warning was a “first for President Biden’s press office,” according to the paper.
The reporter, originally from the Republic of Cameroon, also accused the White House and the Washington Post of coordination in a “hit piece” against him and even for putting his life in danger.
“I would like the American people to know that I believe the White House coordinated with the Washington Post and ordered them to do a hit piece on me days ago to assassinate my character and direct hate toward me and endanger my life and prevent me from renewing my hard pass which expires on July 31,” he wrote.
Ateba, a divisive figure in the White House press pool, also gained some notoriety online after he battled with Jean-Pierre during a press briefing in June.
“So are you going to take questions from me?… Because you’ve been discriminating against me for the past nine months,” Ateba told Jean-Pierre.
“You’re incredibly rude. You’re being incredibly rude,” Jean-Pierre responded. She proceeded to threaten to end the press briefing if Ateba wouldn’t fall in line and stop interrupting. This occurred before any reporters had asked their questions.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.