The White House press pool, a rotating cast of news outlets that covers the president, is now a battleground over free speech rights between President Donald Trump and the media.
CNN was banned from its scheduled pool duty for the day — and the pool announced that it was canceling its coverage of Trump. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place. But the pool also is an institution steeped in tradition and anchored in the Constitution’s guarantee of a free press. The relationship between elected American leaders and the journalists who hold them accountable is designed to be adversarial. That’s essential for knowing what the president and his administration are — or are not — doing in the United States’ name, with taxpayer money.
“Effective today, there would be no network pool coverage of the president’s events,” the television pool of five broadcasters wrote in an email to its subscribers. On Monday, the issue headed for the courts as CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the administration over being barred from the White House and, they contend, denied their First Amendment rights.
Earlier reporting noted: President Donald Trump announced the ban Friday in a post on Truth Social, saying the three outlets would be barred from the White House “effective immediately. The First Amendment to the Bill of Rights states that the government “shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press. The Trump administration has long insisted that nobody has the right to ask the president questions, especially in the White House — and that goes for members of the pool, whom the president routinely insults in personal terms. He also suggested that other media outlets could face similar restrictions.
In 1913, Woodrow Wilson threatened to end presidential briefings with reporters, resulting in the creation of what became the White House Correspondents’ Association that exists today.
In 1798, John Adams signed the Sedition Act, which made it a crime for citizens to “print, utter, or publish … any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” about the government and used it to jail journalists, according to the National Archives. Earlier reporting noted: Trump accused the organizations of publishing what he called “fake news,” “fiction” and “lies” about him and his administration.
Earlier reporting noted: Why did CNN, MS NOW and Politico sue the Trump administration? White House ban explained CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration on Monday after the White House barred their journalists from its grounds.
Also Monday, CNN was scheduled to travel with the president to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, but a scheduling email from the White House did not name the network.
A responding email from the pool said there would be no replacement for CNN — pushback to any notion that the White House can decide who is in the pool and who is out.
Reporters from all three were denied entrance to the White House grounds the next day. The complaint also contends that the abrupt confiscation of access violated the networks’ Fifth Amendment right to due process. On Monday, the three outlets said they’ve notified the administration that they will file a lawsuit saying their First Amendment rights had been violated.
