Major US television networks will not broadcast live events featuring US President Donald Trump in protest against the White House denying access to three news outlets.
The organisations, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC, announced on Monday that they would halt TV coverage of presidential events over the White House’s ban of CNN.
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The broadcast networks, alongside CNN, make up the five White House television pools that take turns covering the president’s events and sharing live video footage with other news networks.
Mr Trump had accused CNN, Politico and MS Now of repeatedly reporting “fiction and lies” about his administration and barred them from covering the White House without providing any evidence to support his claim last Saturday.
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The latest move is a protest against the White House’s decision to restrict access for the three media outlets.
In a joint statement Monday, the five members of the rotating TV pool wrote, “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting.”
In a Memo to the White House Press Corps, the Fox News Washington bureau chief and chair of the TV pool, Bryan Boughton, wrote, “This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.
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“There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal, including Congress, VIPs, and selected events in Washington and around the country.”
This came shortly after the three news organisations banned from reporting on the White House announced they had filed a suit in the federal district court in Washington.
The news platforms accused the Trump administration of violating their First Amendment free press rights and Fifth Amendment due process.
They also asked a federal judge to hear the case on an expedited basis.
The US government has also banned news organisations and journalists over their reporting in several other cases in the last year.
READ ALSO: Trump bans CNN, Politico, MS Now from White House
In January 2025, Mr Trump barred Associated Press journalists from parts of the White House, including the Oval Office and Air Force One.
The AP has sued to restore its access, and the case remains in litigation. In April of the same year, Reuters and Bloomberg News lost their permanent slots in the small pool of reporters covering President Trump.
Also in July, the White House removed the Wall Street Journal reporter from the press pool for President Trump’s trip to Scotland, over the Journal’s reporting on Jeffrey Epstein.
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