On Friday, Trump announced a ban on three news outlets, saying he was fed up with what he described as “purposely negative stories.” Journalists from CNN, MS Now, and Politico had their badges confiscated when they arrived at the White House complex on Saturday.
The three news outlets said in a joint statement on Monday that they would sue the Trump regime for barring them from the White House, saying it was a violation of their First Amendment rights to cover the president. Experts say the ban is unlikely to withstand legal scrutiny. A hearing is scheduled for Friday before a federal judge who once overturned Trump banning Jim Acosta from the White House.
Disclaimer: I used to freelance for CNN.
Today, five television networks, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC, agreed to suspend their pooled coverage of Trump. The five networks issued a statement saying, “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.”
Bryan Boughton, the Washington bureau chief at Fox News, wrote in a note to television pool members on Monday, “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.” Boughton is the acting chair of the television pool consortium. The networks rotate the chairmanship on a quarterly basis.
Boughton added, “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal.”
Additionally, pool photographers agreed not to release any photos of Trump from the day’s events until after midnight.
Trump defended his fascist decision in a social media post on Monday. “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.”
But the thing is, Trump did not specify any “fake news” to justify his ban. He said that they were banned because of negative coverage. Trump cannot ban news outlets from covering him just because he doesn’t like what they write. Also, he does not own the White House. It is the people’s house. Banning news organizations from covering him is an assault on the First Amendment. It is not the press’s job to cover Donald Trump, the individual, but to cover the president of the United States. For better or worse, and it’s always been worse, Donald Trump is the president of the United States.
In live footage at a ribbon-cutting ceremony unveiling the new South Lawn helipad at the White House, Trump was inaudible. Later in the day, Trump was at the UN, where he received minimum media coverage. This will drive him nuts.
I predict Trump will go even further insane if he doesn’t see photos of himself or cameramen surrounding him with microphones, and knowing that he is going to lose this case, like he loses most of his court cases; he will lift this ban tomorrow.
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