CNN, MS NOW and Politico Sue Trump Over White House Press Ban
By Susan Heavey, Jonathan Stempel and Helen Coster
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) — CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued President Donald Trump and other members of his administration on Monday, challenging their exclusion from White House grounds as a violation of the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and a free press.
The outlets are asking a federal court in Washington, D.C., for a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s ban. A hearing is 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 said in a joint statement. “The government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
Trump announced the ban Friday on social media, saying the outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES” while covering the president. He defended the move Monday, writing that the White House was not attacking the free press, which he said he cherishes, but “FAKE NEWS,” which he called a national security threat. He offered no evidence for that claim.
The lawsuit marks another escalation in Trump’s long-running campaign against the mainstream media. While past presidents have clashed with reporters, Trump has broken with decades of tradition by denying basic access to major news organizations, attacking journalists personally, elevating outlets seen as friendlier to his administration and filing lawsuits against news companies.
On Monday evening, the White House launched a streaming channel called “Trump TV,” days after the ban. Officials described it as featuring videos and highlights of what they call the administration’s achievements. Press freedom advocates described it differently: a “steady diet of government propaganda.”
A 60-second trailer highlighted Trump’s 2024 presidential victory, and the first video streamed after the platform went live was Trump’s July 3 remarks at Mount Rushmore. Fifteen minutes after launch on YouTube, the stream had about 8,000 live views.
“This just makes it even clearer that the real goal here is to ensure that the American public is fed a steady diet of government propaganda,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.
White House TV pool
CNN is one of five news organizations — along with ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC — that make up the primary White House television pool. The networks share the costs of covering the president, rotate coverage duties and distribute footage to outlets across the country.
CNN had been scheduled to cover Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Monday but was unable to provide a pool feed. In response, the other major TV networks suspended presidential pool coverage, eliminating the most widespread video source for White House events just as Trump is set to meet world leaders on the sidelines of the General Assembly and host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington later in the week.
“This is to advise that, effective today (Monday), the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Bryan Boughton, who runs the Fox News Washington bureau and is the current TV pool chair, said in an email Monday. “There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
Elsewhere, Monday was largely business as usual in the White House press room as reporters planned for the day’s events, including an afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony for Trump’s new Marine One helipad on the South Lawn. The audio on the White House’s own live stream of the ceremony, promoted as an alternative to the pool feed, was inaudible.
Trump’s party is seeking to retain narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress in November’s midterm elections. Polls show the public souring on Republicans, and Trump’s approval ratings remain near historic lows.
A person familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Natalie Harp, a close presidential aide, showed Trump clips and graphics of recent news coverage, contributing to his decision to ban the three outlets. Trump has been “very unhappy” with midterm election coverage, the person added, and his frustration deepened after last week’s Supreme Court ruling that blocked his attempt to limit mail-in voting.
Asked about the lawsuit, Harp’s role and Trump’s views on election coverage, the White House told Reuters: “The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside.”
A united front
The affected news organizations moved quickly to present a united front. Within 10 minutes of Trump’s announcement Friday, CNN reached out to MS NOW and Politico to discuss joint legal action, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“Banning news organizations from the White House prevents them from confronting government officials face-to-face and perhaps eliciting off-the-cuff unguarded comments that might shed new light onto political matters, which is especially important during an election year,” said Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
Last year, Trump banned the Associated Press from the pool of reporters covering his movements after the news agency did not adopt his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. The AP has sued over the ban. His administration has also limited many journalists’ access to the Pentagon.
During Trump’s first term, the White House sought to revoke the credentials of then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. Federal judges ordered their White House press passes restored.
The new lawsuit was assigned to U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump in 2017. Kelly ruled against Trump in 2018 in the Acosta case.
Longtime press critic
Trump has intensified his actions targeting the media since winning a second term, suing multiple outlets and repeatedly urging broadcasters to drop programs he considers unfair. He has called on the Federal Communications Commission to strip disfavored broadcast stations of their licenses.
David Ellison, son of Trump ally and Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, took control of Paramount and its CBS news unit, leading to a shakeup at “60 Minutes,” the most popular U.S. TV news magazine. Ellison is now seeking to acquire CNN parent Warner Bros., in a move approved by Trump’s administration.
(Reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Additional reporting by Andrew Goudsward, Mike Scarcella, Nandita Bose, Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Nupur Anand, Jonathan Stempel, Edmund Lee and Helen Coster in New York; and Jaspreet Singh, Anusha Shah and Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru; Editing by Will Dunham, Susan Fenton, Jesse Mesner-Hage and Matthew Lewis)