Five major U.S. broadcasters across the political spectrum have suspended their coverage of president Donald Trump in protest of his decision to ban multiple critical news channels from the White House.
Fox News - ordinarily supportive of Trump - joined ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN in announcing on Monday they would not cover presidential events. The show of solidarity came after CNN, Politico and MS Now (formerly MSNBC) were banned from White House grounds on Friday, accused of peddling “fiction or lies” about the administration.
“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” the outlets, making up the primary White House television pool, said in a joint statement.
The five networks are considered the only outlets with the resource to distribute live coverage from the White House and of presidential events. A number of newspapers including the New York Times and the Washington Post, also said they would not share still images from Trump events.
Suspending presidential pool coverage has eliminated the most widespread video source for White House events just as Trump is set to meet with world leaders around the UN General Assembly in New York and to host Chinese president Xi Jinping in Washington later this week.
Trump played down the boycott, telling reporters on Monday following a meeting with the Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani: “It's interesting because, they said they were going to boycott me, but they never boycott me, so I wasn't very worried about that. Look at all that press.”
But the media blackout was felt as Trump presided over a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the new South Lawn helipad at the White House without a microphone.
Conservative outlet NewsMax reported that the president was inaudible because the pool cameras were not present for the event, admitting it was “one example of [Trump’s ban] backfiring just a little bit”.
Brian Stelter, chief media analyst at CNN, said the row felt “substantially different” to previous outbursts, assessing that other members of the press corps were probably trying to “draw a line”, fearing that they might be next.
“Maybe the feeling won’t last. Maybe the unity will fizzle out. But at least for a moment, Trump’s ban has prompted shows of solidarity from almost every corner of the White House press corps and beyond,” he said.
Trump has threatened that there may be “others to join” the impacted outlets. He has not said exactly what prompted Friday’s ban, instead blaming it on “just cumulative stories over the last few years”.
According to CNN, an unfavourable Politico graphic was among the content that angered Trump before the ban on Friday. White House correspondent Alayna Treene said the president may have also been “set off” by a report on his bad poll numbers.
A person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that presidential aide Natalie Harp had showed Trump clips and graphics of recent news coverage, which contributed to his decision to ban the three outlets.
Trump has been "very unhappy" with coverage of the midterm elections, the person added, and his frustration intensified after last week's Supreme Court ruling that blocked his attempt to limit mail-in voting.
“The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President's Oval Office,” the White House said in response to Reuters questions about the lawsuit, Harp's role and Trump's views on election coverage. “They're completely capable of reporting from directly outside.”
The White House has responded to the boycott by launching its own streaming channel, Trump TV, which says it will operate a 24/7 feed of announcements and “top past moments” from the administration.
Defending his ban on Monday, Trump said: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
The president provided no evidence of a national security threat. In response to Friday’s ban, the three affected news channels have sued the Trump administration to “defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports”.
The affected news outlets are seeking a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s action in federal court in Washington, D.C., with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawsuit stated.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference," the outlets wrote in a joint statement. "The government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
Last year, Trump banned the Associated Press from the pool of reporters that cover his movements because the news agency did not adopt his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. The AP has sued over the ban.
His administration also has limited the access of many journalists to the Pentagon. In his first term, Trump's White House sought to take away the credentials of then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. Federal judges ordered their White House press passes be restored.
