THE WASHINGTON POST: Major TV networks halt video coverage of Donald Trump over CNN’s White House ban

News organisations responded strenuously Monday to US President Donald Trump’s decision to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, filing a lawsuit in Federal court and banding together to halt video coverage of the president until further notice.

In the suit filed in federal district court in Washington, CNN, MS NOW and Politico are alleging violations of news outlets’ First Amendment free press rights and due process under the Fifth Amendment. They are requesting that a Federal judge hear the case on an expedited basis.

Soon after the lawsuit was announced, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC said they would halt TV coverage of presidential events, according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post, over the White House’s ban of CNN, which is one of the five members the White House television pool.

The Post on Monday shared it will not publish any photographs of the day’s presidential events — including Trump’s departure from the White House and his events at the United Nations in New York — until midnight Eastern time (2pm AEDT Tuesday), joining a collective effort with photographers in other newsrooms covering the White House in a show of support of the banned outlets.

“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Bryan Boughton, the Fox News Washington bureau chief and rotational chair of the TV pool, wrote in an email to journalists who subscribe to press pool updates that was obtained by The Post. “… There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal, including Congress, VIPs, and selected events in Washington and around the country.”

In a joint statement Monday, the five members of the rotating TV pool wrote: “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting.”

The three banned organisations further allege that the White House’s decision Friday to revoke their credentials was “because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”

The pool is a way for the networks to split the hefty costs of following the president around with TV cameras. The assigned network records and distributes a live feed that other news outlets can use.

Without a TV pooler, there will be scant video coverage of Trump unless news outlets take their own video or use feeds provided by the White House.

The White House seized control of the pool selection process last year from the White House Correspondents’ Association, allowing the administration to choose what outlets send reporters to cover events, but the five TV networks were unaffected and have rotated normally since then. CNN’s expulsion marked the first such dismissal of a TV pooler.

Trump said Friday that he would ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House, saying he disliked how they covered him.

“They’re fake news,” he said. The following day, the organisations said that their journalists had been denied access to the White House grounds and that their press passes were confiscated.

Trump addressed the bans Monday on Truth Social.

“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. 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!” When asked for comment, the White House referred The Post to this post on Truth Social.

Vice-President JD Vance defended Trump’s actions Monday. “He’s not banning media outlets. What he’s doing is saying we’re not going to give you special access to the White House if you engage in what is effectively propaganda,” he told reporters.

The plaintiffs, represented by First Amendment lawyer Theodore J. Boutrous Jr, asked a federal judge to halt the bans and restore their access.

The case was assigned to US District Judge Timothy J. Kelly, a Trump appointee to the Federal bench who oversaw Jim Acosta’s legal battle to restore his press credentials in 2018. Kelly granted CNN’s motion for a temporary restraining order in that case. After that, the White House let Acosta back in and CNN dropped its litigation.

Trump assailed Kelly in a Truth Social post on Monday.

“They have drawn a great Judge, for them, a man who ruled in favor of Jim Acosta, who now seems to have disappeared from the Planet. The Judge’s name is Tim Kelly, and he was, sadly, appointed by ‘TRUMP,’” he wrote.

Trump also seemed to predict that Kelly will rule against him: “In other words, almost without question and, as usual, we’ll go for appeal because Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World.”

White House reporters for each of the outlets — MS NOW’s Akayla Gardner, CNN’s Betsy Klein and Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett — are also plaintiffs in the suit. Trump, White House chief of ctaff Susie Wiles, White House communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service Director Sean M. Curran are named as defendants in their government capacities.

Boutrous called the ban “a direct assault on the First Amendment and a blatant violation of due process” and said the law is on his clients’ side.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico have received nearly unanimous support from fellow news organisations as well as press advocacy organisations in recent days. White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich, a Fox News reporter, urged the White House in a statement to restore the reporters’ access.

“The American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinise those elected to power, regardless of whether government officials view it favourably,” she said.

The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University said it plans to support the news outlets in court.

Jameel Jaffer, the group’s executive director, said the bans constitute “an attack both on press freedom and the public’s right to independent information about the government.”

During his first administration, Trump banned Acosta and later Playboy reporter Brian Karem from the White House, though both were allowed back after they sued the Government.

Those cases, along with a 1977 case involving Robert Sherrill of the Nation, were highlighted in the new complaint.

CNN’s ban in particular created logistical hurdles for the news media. The network is one of five poolers — along with ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News — that rotate primary responsibility of covering the president with television cameras.

The White House removed the network from its schedule Monday, seemingly leaving the president without designated TV cameras filming him during his trip to the United Nations in New York.