ع
Major US television networks suspended their pooled coverage of President Donald Trump on Monday after the White House prevented CNN from carrying out its scheduled pool duties in protest at the barring of three news organisations from the presidential complex. ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC issued a joint statement declaring that the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate independent information about its government and that no administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting. The decision means there will be no television pool feed for Trump’s events including a Monday ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new White House helipad and his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York where he was scheduled to meet foreign leaders according to multiple reports including from The New York Times.
President Trump announced the ban on Friday accusing CNN, MS NOW and Politico of writing fiction or lies about his administration. Secret Service agents denied reporters from the three outlets access to the White House on Saturday and confiscated their press credentials a move that stunned many within the media and reportedly some in the administration itself. The New York Times reported that Trump confirmed the restrictions on Truth Social stating that media outlets should not be able to constantly write or report fiction and lies when covering the president or the United States of America.
CNN, Politico and MS NOW filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday in US District Court in Washington seeking to overturn the ban and obtain a temporary restraining order. The suit names Trump, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Communications Director Steven Cheung and Secret Service Director Sean Curran as defendants arguing that the restrictions amount to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. The case was assigned to Judge Timothy J. Kelly a Trump appointee who during the president’s first term ordered the restoration of credentials to CNN’s Jim Acosta according to The New York Times.
In response to the absence of traditional network coverage the White House launched its own streaming channel called Trump TV which operates a 24/7 feed of clips of the president and directs followers to its app for live appearances. During the helipad ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Lawn Trump’s comments were streamed by the White House but proved inaudible as they were captured only by a second-tier broadcaster unable to overcome the roar of Marine One. The Boston Globe and other outlets reported that the five networks forming the rotating pool had rotated responsibility for providing shared footage from limited-access events to split costs and distribute widely.
Several other major news organisations joined the protest by declining to publish or share still images from Trump’s events on Monday until after midnight Eastern time. The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Associated Press participated in this coordinated effort in support of the banned outlets according to reports from RTE and Euronews. NPR also indicated it would stop using audio from White House events in an internal memo viewed by The New York Times expanding the scope of the media solidarity.
The confrontation marks a significant escalation in tensions between the Trump administration and the press echoing disputes from his first term when similar actions against reporters drew widespread condemnation from First Amendment groups. Those groups described the current ban as unconstitutional and unlikely to survive a court challenge according to coverage in The New York Times and The Times of India. Journalists at Fox News have also expressed internal objections to the ban with one contributor noting that conservatives should challenge liberal reporters rather than broadly restricting access.
