TV networks refuse to cover Trump in solidarity with CNN following ban

New York: The major American television networks will refuse to cover daily press events with US President Donald Trump after he banned one of them, CNN, and barred its reporters from the White House.

ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC stood in solidarity with CNN and will not participate in the daily “pool” – a small, rotating group of pre-selected outlets that film and share footage of the president’s public events.

It means there is a cloud over TV coverage of Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations – where he will meet numerous other world leaders and deliver an address to the General Assembly. Coverage of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping is also uncertain.

While the White House has appointed a secondary TV pool position – filled on Monday (US time) by right-wing channel Real America’s Voice – those outlets typically do not share footage as per the traditional pool.

All five of the primary TV networks released a rare joint statement. “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government,” they said. “No administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting.”

The united stand came as the three outlets Trump banned – CNN, Politico and MS NOW – launched legal action challenging the president’s move under the First Amendment of the Constitution, which protects a free press.

The lawsuit names Trump, White House chief-of-staff Susie Wiles, communications director Steven Cheung and Secret Service director Sean Curran as defendants. It was lodged in the US District Court for the District of Columbia (Washington) on Monday.

“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” lawyers for the networks said in the claim.

“The president’s statements make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favourable coverage of the administration from CNN, MS NOW and Politico, and to deter other journalists and news organisations from reporting that the president might view as unfavourable.”

They also contend that Trump’s ban – announced on Friday afternoon via social media, and implemented that night – violated the due process clause by failing to give notice, clear reasons or the opportunity to be heard.

Trump made the decision after his aide, Natalie Harp, showed him footage of MS NOW anchors criticising his administration, The Wall Street Journal reported at the weekend.

The president is known for his voluminous consumption of television coverage of his administration, and he regularly posts online praising or criticising the appearances of talking heads on cable news channels.

Faced with an absence of TV coverage in the face of the unified boycott, the White House directed followers on social media to the White House’s own app, where Trump’s appearances are streamed live. “No noise. Just the news that matters most – straight from the Trump Administration,” it said.

Trump also doubled down on the ban, saying that “fake news” – his preferred term for reporting he does not like – had “grown like Cancer” in the US. “It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Vice President JD Vance defended the ban, claiming that 92 per cent of the stories carried by CNN, Politico and MS NOW were negative about Trump or the administration.

“That’s not representative of the American people,” Vance told reporters. “If you’re going to engage in what is effectively far-left propaganda, why would a Republican White House give you special access?”

Under the unprecedented ban, journalists from the three outlets have been blocked from the White House grounds. Their passes were deactivated, and when they attempted to enter the premises on Saturday, their passes were confiscated by the Secret Service.

That means they are unable to access their desks inside the West Wing, attend events with the president or interact with press office staff on the premises. They have been broadcasting from intersections near the White House instead.

In a joint statement, CNN, Politico and MS NOW said their legal challenge would defend the core principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.

Trump signalled last week that he expected a legal fight, surmising the result may depend on the judge. “I don’t think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day,” he said.