US television networks staged an extraordinary revolt Monday when they effectively boycotted coverage of President Donald Trump in protest at his decision to ban three leading outlets from the White House.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico also went to court after Trump on Friday ordered them to be barred, as the 80-year-old Republican stepped up his years-long assault on the US media.
In a rare move, the top five US broadcasters said on Monday that they were halting “pool” coverage of the White House — where a broadcaster films on behalf of all television outlets for the day — in solidarity with CNN.
CNN had been scheduled to serve Monday as the White House TV pool.
“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.
The move means there will be no television coverage of Trump’s trip on Monday to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he was due to meet a series of foreign leaders.
– Media ‘like cancer’ –
The lawsuit filed by CNN, MS NOW seeks the immediate overturning of the ban and a ruling that it violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which upholds 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 was unrepentant, branding the media a “cancer” and a threat 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 — a former CNN commentator before his move into politics — accused the outlets of disseminating “left-wing propaganda.”
“They can still report. They still have the access to free speech. They’re just not going to get an office in the White House anymore,” he told reporters.
– Press passes confiscated –
Trump’s sudden announcement of the ban on Friday stunned the media — and reportedly many in his own administration.
Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to the White House grounds on Saturday and had their passes confiscated.
The outlets said the White House revoked their journalists’ credentials “without notice or process” because it “objected to our reporting.”
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” they said in their joint statement.
Trump has not detailed what prompted the ban, but said in response to a question from an AFP reporter in the Oval Office on Friday 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.
Trump warned Friday that other outlets could face a similar fate, without saying which.
CNN reported that Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp had showed him clips of media coverage last week — including a graphic from Politico — before he announced the ban.
The billionaire former reality TV star has long attacked media outlets that have aired critical coverage of his campaigns and administrations, repeatedly blasting the press as the “enemy of the people.”
