Try to picture the process behind banning three major news outlets, then picture none of it existing.
That is more or less how Friday played out. Trump posted on Truth Social that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were barred from the building “effective immediately,” accusing them of running coverage that “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States.” He added that “Other Fake News Media Outlets” could be next.
Hours later, CNN reporters were still working from their usual spots inside the White House, according to their own reporting. The announcement landed, and nothing about the routine actually changed.
When reporters asked for details in the Oval Office, the answers did not go far. “Because they’re fake news,” Trump said when pressed on why the outlets were being singled out. He added, “Something is wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories.”
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Asked whether the move would hold up legally, he shrugged that off too: “I think it’s good to point it out whether it survives or doesn’t.”
Pushback arrived fast, and it came from people whose entire job is defending press access. White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich said in a statement that the group “stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MSNOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs,” adding that the fight was “about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account” of their own government.
Legal experts followed with their own concerns. Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute argued that banning outlets from the press pool would be “doubly unconstitutional,” since that pool operates as a public forum under the First Amendment.
By Saturday, the situation started to take shape in pieces.
MS NOW said its reporters had been turned away at the gates, stating, “The White House belongs to the American people and the decisions made inside are funded by our tax dollars,” and promising to “take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights.”
CNN answered with its own statement, calling the move an “illegal assault” and saying it has “a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government.
Reporters Without Borders weighed in as well, saying Trump was “once again spewing lies about ‘fake news’ to try to control who covers him and where.”
There is also some history here, and it fills in part of the picture.
In 2018, a CNN reporter lost his press pass before a court ordered it restored. Last year, the Associated Press was blocked from certain spaces after refusing to use Trump’s preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico, a dispute that is still working through the courts.
Featured image via Political Tribune Gallery
