US television networks on Monday launched an extraordinary rebellion, in effect boycotting coverage of President Donald Trump to protest his decision to ban three leading outlets from the White House.
CNN, MS NOW, and Politico likewise headed to court after Trump ordered them barred on Friday, as the 80-year-old Republican intensified his long-running campaign against the US media.
In an unusual step, the five biggest US broadcasters announced Monday that they were suspending “pool” coverage of the White House—in which one broadcaster films on behalf of all television outlets for the day—in solidarity with CNN.
CNN had been set to serve as the White House TV pool on Monday.
“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,” ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC said in a statement.
This decision means Trump’s Monday trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he was scheduled to meet with several foreign leaders, will not be televised.
In the lawsuit brought by CNN, MS NOW is asking for the ban to be struck down right away and for a ruling that it breaches the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which protects the right to free speech.
“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 organizations said in a court filing.
Trump showed no remorse, calling the media a “cancer” and a danger to national security.
“The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
“It is instituting an assault on the fake news, something that has grown like cancer in our beloved United States of America.”
Vice President JD Vance, who previously worked as a CNN commentator before entering politics, accused the outlets of spreading “left-wing propaganda.”
“They can still report. They still have access to free speech. They’re just not going to get an office in the White House anymore,” he told reporters.
Trump’s abrupt Friday announcement of the ban left the media shocked—and reportedly surprised many within his own administration as well.
On Saturday, journalists from CNN, MS. NOW, and Politico were barred from entering the White House grounds and had their passes taken away.
According to the outlets, the White House pulled their journalists’ credentials “without notice or process” since it “objected to our reporting.”
In their joint statement, they said, “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Trump did not explain what led to the ban, but when an AFP reporter asked him about it in the Oval Office on Friday, he replied that it was “really just cumulative stories over the last two years.”
“They want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration,” Trump added.
On Friday, Trump warned that other outlets might meet a comparable end, though he didn’t specify which ones.
According to CNN, Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp had shown him clips of media coverage the previous week—among them a graphic from Politico—shortly before he declared the ban.
The billionaire and former reality TV personality has for years targeted media outlets that broadcast critical coverage of his campaigns and administrations, time and again denouncing the press as the “enemy of the people.”
