TV networks halt presidential pool coverage after Trump bans media outlets
The five major television networks have suspended pooled coverage of President Trump after the White House blocked CNN from taking its assigned turn, the networks said. The decision left broadcasters without a shared feed of a presidential event.
Bryan Boughton, the Washington bureau chief at Fox News and acting chair of the television pool consortium, notified members on Monday that the pool would stop covering presidential events designated for shared coverage. CNN had been scheduled to provide Monday’s coverage.
“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.”
The television pool consists of ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News Media and NBC News. The networks rotate responsibility for providing video and audio from presidential events where space or access is limited, sharing the footage with other broadcasters so each outlet does not need its own camera crew inside.
“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 five television pool members said in a joint statement.
Trump announced on Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be banned from the White House press pool. All three outlets have announced they are suing the administration.
The effects were apparent during a White House event on Monday, when a Newsmax anchor said viewers could not hear Trump because the pool cameras and microphone were absent.
“The ramifications are here. Can’t hear what the president is saying,” the anchor said, describing the situation as “backfiring just a little bit.”
C-SPAN also said it would not show the 1:45 p.m. White House event because it did not have a pool feed.
Print and radio journalists were still set to cover the president’s activities on Monday. Boughton said television pool coverage of Congress, VIPs and selected events in Washington and elsewhere would continue normally.
Washington Post spokeswoman Olivia Petersen said the newspaper would withhold photographs of Monday’s presidential events until midnight Eastern Time, including Trump’s departure from the White House and his events at the United Nations in New York.
The White House defended the restrictions in a statement titled “White House Access Is a Privilege – Not a Right,” saying Trump had removed the three outlets from White House grounds over what it called “years of false reporting.”
“The First Amendment protects their right to publish; it does not entitle them to a hard pass, briefing room seat, or place in the press pool,” the statement said.
The White House cited figures from the Media Research Center claiming that 92% of mainstream coverage during the first 100 days of Trump’s second term was negative, compared with nearly 60% positive coverage during the same period under Biden.
“No President is required to host a hostile operation on the grounds,” the White House said. “Access has always been a privilege – and President Trump is applying that rule.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
