President Donald Trump said last week he was banning CNN, POLITICO and MS NOW from the White House, prompting several TV networks to pause its live coverage in protest.
On Friday, President Trump announced on Truth Social he was “banning Fake News CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.” At a press conference later that day in the Oval Office, the president did not provide further details on what the ban would look like. By Saturday afternoon, multiple reporters from those outlets said their press passes had been revoked.
The three news networks are now suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating the First Amendment.
"Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the three networks said in a joint statement Monday morning. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
On Monday, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC announced it would suspend television coverage of presidential events as a result of the press ban. These networks rotate which provides coverage on certain White House matters, and CNN was previously set to cover Trump’s travel on Monday.
Trump said on Friday that this move was not a result of one specific story, but a buildup of constant “Fake News” reporting over the last two years.
"They purposely write negative news, and they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration," Trump said.
This move comes as the most recent effort from Trump to restrict free press rights. Earlier this month, ABC’s late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel did not air his interview with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico (D-TX) on TV due to “threats” from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The interview was instead released on YouTube, surpassing 2.2 million views in the first 12 hours.
“Now that he [Trump] is president, his FCC has threatened me, threatened our show, threatened our network ABC, our affiliates, our local stations based on simple traditional editorial decisions: guest bookings it would seem they don’t like,” Kimmel said during the show.
