President Donald Trump's decision to bar CNN from serving as the designated television pool reporter has prompted the five major TV networks to suspend pooled camera coverage of presidential events, escalating a confrontation that began when the White House revoked access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico. The disruption means Trump's trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly is set to proceed without the customary pooled television camera.
CNN had been scheduled to handle television pool duties this week under a longstanding arrangement in which CNN, CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC rotate responsibility for providing video of presidential appearances to the broader press corps. After the White House removed CNN from that assignment, the other networks declined to provide a replacement.
Bryan Boughton of Fox News, who chairs the television pool, said the group would stop providing pooled coverage of presidential events effective immediately, according to Axios. The move doesn't mean the networks have stopped reporting on Trump; rather, they aren't supplying a substitute camera crew when the network scheduled for the rotation is excluded.
The standoff follows Trump's announcement Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were banned from the White House "effective immediately." Journalists from all three organizations were turned away from the White House grounds Saturday, and their credentials were disabled or confiscated.
"I am proud to announce that, effective immediately, I am banning Fake News CNN, MSNOW ... and Politico ... from the White House as a result of their constant 'reporting' FAKE NEWS!" Trump wrote on Truth Social, according to CBS News.
"Media Outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America," Trump added. "Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow."
Trump didn't identify a single report that triggered the decision. Reuters reported that the president attributed the bans to what he described as the outlets' cumulative coverage over the years rather than a specific article or broadcast.
CNN's scheduled pool assignment subsequently created another point of conflict. The White House's Sunday-night guidance for Monday's presidential schedule didn't list a primary television pooler even though CNN had been due to fill that role, according to The New York Times.
The television pool is designed for situations in which logistical or security restrictions make it impractical for every network to bring its own camera crew. The designated network records the president and distributes the footage to the other participating organizations, allowing television outlets to cover events that otherwise couldn't accommodate the full press corps.
The dispute is now moving into federal court. CNN, MS NOW and Politico said Monday that they are suing the Trump administration, alleging that stripping their journalists of White House access because of their reporting violates First Amendment press protections and Fifth Amendment due-process rights.
"Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists' credentials because it objected to our reporting," the organizations said in a joint statement. "Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference."
The organizations said they had notified the administration of their legal action and would seek to protect "our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes." The White House had not immediately responded publicly to the lawsuit announcement, according to the Associated Press.
The confrontation follows an earlier legal battle between the administration and the Associated Press. The White House restricted AP journalists' access to certain limited-space presidential events after the organization continued using "Gulf of Mexico" while also noting Trump's order renaming it the "Gulf of America" for U.S. federal usage. That dispute produced competing court rulings over the extent of presidential discretion in controlling access to restricted spaces.
Trump defended his broader approach to the media in another social-media post Monday. "The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish," he wrote. "It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America."
Trump continued: "It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"
