Networks suspend pool coverage of Trump after White House bans CNN
By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM and ALI WATKINS
The major television networks Monday suspended their pooled coverage of President Donald Trump, breaking a practice that dates to the Eisenhower administration after Trump refused to allow CNN to serve as a pool representative.
The move was an extraordinary escalation amid a showdown between the Trump administration and the White House press corps, which began last week when the president barred journalists at CNN, MS NOW and Politico from entering the White House grounds. Those three outlets sued Monday to regain access.
Despite Trump’s years of lawsuits and threats against the news media, archrival news organizations have rarely undertaken this kind of collective action.
Five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — have long shared the responsibility of providing television coverage of the president, splitting the financial costs and distributing footage that is carried by news outlets worldwide. The networks perform their duties on a rotation, and CNN had been scheduled to provide coverage for Trump’s travel Monday to the U.N. General Assembly.
It is extremely unusual for a president to travel or hold public events without being accompanied by representatives from the television pool. The president’s activities Monday were still covered by print, radio and wire journalists, along with still photographers.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the president,” Bryan Boughton, Washington bureau chief at Fox News, wrote in a note to television pool members that was obtained by The New York Times. (Boughton is the acting chair of the television pool consortium; the networks rotate the chairmanship on a quarterly basis.)
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” Boughton wrote. “There will be no replacement pool put in place.” He said the networks would continue to provide pool coverage for events involving other prominent officials, including the vice president and members of Congress.
The five networks later issued a joint statement, writing: “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.”
Network cameras began accompanying the president in the 1950s, when aides to President Dwight D. Eisenhower maintained editorial control of the footage, according to Kathryn McGarr, a media historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Administrations often work hand in hand with the television networks, since the arrangement is mutually beneficial. Journalists have an opportunity to preserve the historical record and be present for any unusual event — such as when a gunman shot President Ronald Reagan in Washington in 1981 — while the White House receives high-quality footage of the president that can be quickly distributed around the world.
On Monday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Lawn offered a glimpse at what can happen when that system breaks down.
The ceremony was the formal opening of Trump’s new helipad, a project of which he speaks often. No major TV network sent cameras or boom microphones to the event. The White House provided its own YouTube stream, but the audio was garbled, and the president’s remarks were almost entirely inaudible.
TV networks have historically been reluctant to yield their ability to film the president, even as Trump has menaced individual reporters and curtailed access to certain news outlets.
There is some precedent: In 2009, the major networks balked when the Obama administration tried to bar Fox News from participating in a Treasury Department event; the administration backed down. That incident did not involve barring a news outlet from entering the White House.
Trump’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico caught some of his own aides off guard. The president abruptly announced it in a Truth Social post Friday, saying he was fed up with what he described as “purposely negative stories.” Journalists from the three organizations had their badges confiscated when they arrived at the White House complex Saturday.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration Monday, calling Trump’s actions a violation of their First Amendment rights. Experts say the ban is unlikely to withstand legal scrutiny. They have also asked a judge to temporarily lift the ban until the courts decide.
Trump, for his part, doubled down on his decision in a social media post Monday.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” the president wrote. “It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.”
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