US networks boycott Trump over banning media outlets from the White House

United States television networks staged an extraordinary revolt today when they effectively boycotted coverage of US President Donald Trump in protest at his decision to ban three leading outlets from the White House. 

CNN, MS NOW and Politico also went to court after Trump at the weekend ordered them to be barred, as the 80-year-old Republican stepped up his years-long assault on the US media. 

In a rare move, the top five US broadcasters said that they were halting “pool” coverage of the White House – where a broadcaster films on behalf of all television outlets for the day – in solidarity with CNN. 

CNN had been scheduled today to serve as the White House TV pool. 

ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC said in a joint statement: “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.” 

The move means there will be no television coverage of Trump’s trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, where he was due to meet a series of foreign leaders. 

The CNN, MS NOW and Politico lawsuit seeks to immediately overturn the ban, arguing that it violates the US First Amendment. 

The court filing says: “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles”. 

Trump was unrepentant, branding the media a “cancer” and a threat to national security. 

On Truth Social, Trump posted: “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.” 

Vice-President JD Vance – a former CNN commentator before his move into politics – accused the outlets of disseminating “left-wing propaganda”. 

He said: “They can still report. They still have the access to free speech. They’re just not going to get an office in the White House anymore.” 

Trump’s sudden announcement of the ban stunned the media – and reportedly many in his own Administration. 

Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were denied access to the White House grounds on Sunday NZT and had their passes confiscated. The outlets said the White House revoked their journalists’ credentials “without notice or process” because it “objected to our reporting”. 

In a joint statement they said: “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference”. 

Trump has not detailed what prompted the ban but said last week that it was “really just cumulative stories over the last two years”. 

“They want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration.” 

He warned that other outlets could face a similar fate, without saying which. 

CNN reported that Trump’s close aide Natalie Harp showed him clips of media coverage last week – including a graphic from Politico – before he announced the ban. 

The billionaire former reality TV star has long attacked media outlets that have aired critical coverage of his campaigns and administrations, repeatedly blasting the press as the “enemy of the people”. 

- AFP