Washington DC: The major American television networks have discontinued their White House pool coverage operations, thereby demonstrating solidarity with CNN following Donald Trump’s decision to restrict access to journalists representing three outlets.
“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,” ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC said in a rare joint statement.
It means the shared TV pool will not cover President Trump’s events designated for pool coverage.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who currently chairs the pool, wrote on Monday to other pool subscribers.
As per a long-standing arrangement, the five major networks take turns filming the President and providing live footage to one another. Local TV stations, newspaper websites and media outlets worldwide rely on that coverage, hence there will be a total blackout of White House pool events.
“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Boughton stated.
As a result of this unified stand, no television production crews are scheduled to accompany Trump during his travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly later on Monday.
Journalists representing CNN, MS NOW and Politico were on barred from entering the White House during the weekend, following Trump’s White House restrictions against these media organisations.
Media houses file lawsuit against Trump
Earlier in the day, CNN, MS NOW and Politico initiated a joint federal lawsuit against Trump, seeking to restore their journalists’ access to the White House.
The lawsuit contends that Trump’s prohibition against the three news organisations violates the First Amendment rights of their reporters regarding freedom of the press as guaranteed by the Constitution, as well as their constitutional protections under the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause.
US President blames ‘corrupt’ and ‘cancerous’ fake news
Reacting to the news of lawsuit against him, Trump said that the ban was not against the “free press” but against “fake news”.
He said that “free press” is something he “cherishes” and reiterated his criticism of “fake news”, calling it “corrupt” and a “threat to national security”.
“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, 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! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
