Major US news networks, including members of the White House television pool, have issued a joint statement defending press access after the Donald Trump administration revoked credentials for CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO, warning that no government should restrict journalists because it objects to their reporting.
Trump on Friday said he was banning CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from the White House, accusing the outlets of what he described as ‘fake news’.
CNN is among the outlets pursuing legal action against the administration. Fellow television pool members, including ABC News, CBS News, Fox News Media and NBC News, have joined the collective statement defending press access and protesting the bans targeting the news organisations.
‘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 joint statement from the networks read.
White House TV pool suspends presidential coverage
The White House television pool has also suspended coverage of President Donald Trump’s pool-designated events after CNN was prevented from completing its assigned rotation, according to CNN.
The decision was communicated in an email from Bryan Boughton, the Fox News Washington bureau chief who currently chairs the television pool, CNN reported.
Under a longstanding agreement, five major networks rotate filming duties to provide shared video footage to global news organisations, local television stations and newspapers.
‘This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties’, Boughton wrote to other pool subscribers, according to CNN. ‘There will be no replacement pool put in place’.
The suspension effectively halts the shared coverage model that media outlets worldwide rely on for presidential events.
‘This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President’, Boughton wrote in the email.
CNN reported that the suspension applies specifically to presidential events, while standard coverage of other government functions remains unaffected.
All other TV pool coverage ‘will continue as normal, including Congress, VIPs, and selected events in Washington and around the country’, Boughton added.
CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO challenge White House ban
The joint action by major broadcast and cable networks comes after CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO launched a First Amendment lawsuit against the White House following the sudden revocation of press credentials for their journalists.
The news organisations described the action as a threat to press freedom and said the move was intended to protect independent journalism from ‘government interference’.
‘Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting’, the organisations stated. ‘Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference’.
CNN has reported that the emergency filing is set for review by a federal judge in the DC District Court, with administration officials potentially facing hearings and legal arguments in the coming days.
Trump banned the three news outlets from the White House, and on Saturday journalists from the affected organisations were denied access to the White House complex. Some also had their press credentials confiscated.
Trump defends decision, calls coverage ‘fake news’
Trump has defended his decision to bar the three news outlets from the White House, characterising the move as an action against ‘fake news’ rather than an attack on constitutional press freedoms.
In a statement posted on Truth Social, 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, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America’.
In his response to the joint legal challenge filed in the US District Court in Washington, which called the action a threat to press freedom and government interference in independent journalism, Trump strongly rejected the allegations.
He instead doubled down on his criticism of the news outlets’ coverage, describing it as a ‘threat to National Security’.
(with ANI inputs)
