CNN, MS Now and Politico sue Trump, challenging White House ban

[WASHINGTON] CNN, MS Now and Politico sued President Donald Trump and other members of his administration on Monday (Sep 21) for banning them from White House grounds, saying the action violated their rights to free speech and a free press under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

The news outlets are seeking a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s action in federal court in Washington, D.C., with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

“This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” the lawsuit stated.

“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” the outlets wrote in a joint statement. “The government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”

Trump announced the ban on Friday on social media, saying the outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States,” and defended it in another 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. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” Trump wrote on Monday, without providing evidence of a national security threat.

Past presidents have battled with the press, but Trump’s campaign against the media has been unprecedented.

He has upended decades of tradition by denying basic access to many major news organisations, launching personal attacks on journalists for their reporting and elevating media outlets seen as more sympathetic to the administration. He also has filed lawsuits against multiple news outlets.

The White House launched a “Trump TV” stream on Monday evening, days after Trump banned the media outlets from the White House.

SEE ALSO

The White House said the stream will run videos and highlights of what it calls the Trump administration’s achievements but a press freedom advocate said it amounted to “a steady diet of government propaganda.”

A 60-second trailer displayed the Republican leader’s 2024 presidential win and the first video streamed after the platform went live was Trump’s remarks on Jul 3 at Mount Rushmore. The stream had only about 8,000 live views 15 minutes after it was launched on YouTube.

“This just makes it even clearer that the real goal here is to ensure that the American public is fed a steady diet of government propaganda,” Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said.

White House television pool

CNN is one of the five news organisations – along with ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC – that make up the primary White House television pool. They share the costs of covering the president, take turns organising coverage and share the footage with outlets around the country.

CNN had been scheduled to cover Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, but was not able to provide a pool feed.

In response, the other major TV networks suspended presidential pool coverage. This effectively eliminated the most widespread video source for White House events just as Trump is set to meet with numerous world leaders on the sidelines of the General Assembly and host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington later in the week.

“This is to advise that, effective today (Monday), the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Bryan Boughton, who runs the Fox News Washington bureau and is the current TV pool chair, said in an email Monday. “There will be no replacement pool put in place.”

Otherwise, it was business as usual in the White House press room on Monday as reporters planned for the day’s events, including an afternoon ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Republican president’s new Marine One helipad on the South Lawn.

The audio on the White House’s own live stream of the ceremony, which it promoted as an alternative to the pool feed, was inaudible.

Trump’s party is seeking to retain its narrow majorities in both chambers of Congress in the November midterm elections. Polls show the public souring on Republicans and Trump’s own approval ratings stand near historic lows.

A source familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Natalie Harp, a close presidential aide, showed Trump clips and graphics of recent news coverage, which contributed to his decision to ban the three outlets.

Trump has been “very unhappy” with coverage of the midterm elections, the source added, and his frustration intensified after last week’s Supreme Court ruling that blocked his attempt to limit mail-in voting.

“The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office,” the White House said in response to Reuters questions about the lawsuit, Harp’s role and Trump’s views on election coverage. “They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside.”

A united front

The affected news organisations moved quickly to present a united front. Within 10 minutes of Trump’s announcement on Friday, CNN reached out to MS Now and Politico to discuss joint legal action, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Banning news organisations from the White House prevents them from confronting government officials face-to-face and perhaps eliciting off-the-cuff unguarded comments that might shed new light onto political matters, which is especially important during an election year,” said Victor Pickard, a professor of media policy and political economy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

Last year, Trump banned the Associated Press from the pool of reporters that cover his movements because the news agency did not adopt his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. The AP has sued over the ban. His administration also has limited the access of many journalists to the Pentagon.

In his ​first term, Trump’s White House sought to take away the credentials of then-CNN correspondent Jim Acosta and Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. Federal ​judges ordered that their White House press passes be restored.

The lawsuit was assigned to US District Judge Timothy Kelly, who was appointed by Trump in 2017. It was Kelly who ruled against Trump in 2018 in the Acosta case.

Longtime press critic

Trump has stepped up his actions targeting the media since winning a second term in office, suing multiple outlets and repeatedly urging broadcasters to drop programmes he deems unfair.

Trump has also called on the Federal Communications Commission to strip disfavored broadcast stations of their licenses.

David Ellison, son of Trump ally and Oracle Executive Chairman Larry Ellison, took control of Paramount and its CBS news unit, leading to a controversial shakeup at 60 Minutes, the most popular US TV news magazine.

Ellison is now seeking to acquire CNN parent Warner Bros, in a move approved by the Trump administration. A number of US states have sued to block the merger.

David Ellison’s company Paramount Skydance on Monday reached a settlement with California and other states, paving the way for the merger. REUTERS