Washington, DC [US], September 21 (ANI): In a rare show of unified resistance, major news networks, including members of the White House television pool, issued a joint statement condemning the US President Donald Trump administration’s credential revocations, warning that no government has the right to block press access over critical reporting.
Trump on Friday said he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the outlets of what he described as "fake news."
While CNN is among the outlets pursuing legal action, fellow pool members, including ABC News, CBS News, Fox News Media, and NBC News joined the collective statement to defend press access and protest administrative bans targeting news organisations.
"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," the joint statement from the networks read.
Additionally, the White House television pool has suspended coverage of President Donald Trump’s pool-designated events after CNN was prevented from completing its assigned rotation, according to CNN.
CNN reported that the decision was communicated in an email from Bryan Boughton, the Fox News Washington bureau chief who currently chairs the television pool. Under a longstanding agreement, five major networks rotate filming duties to provide shared video footage to global news organisations, local television stations, and newspapers.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” Boughton wrote to other pool subscribers, as reported by CNN. “There will be no replacement pool put in place."
According to CNN, the operational pause directly halts the shared coverage model that media outlets worldwide rely on for presidential events.
“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Boughton wrote in the email.
CNN further reported that the suspension applies specifically to presidential events, while standard coverage of other government functions remains unaffected.
All other TV pool coverage “will continue as normal, including Congress, VIPs, and selected events in Washington and around the country,” Boughton added.
The show of solidarity from major broadcast and cable networks comes after CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO launched a First Amendment lawsuit against the White House following the sudden revocation of press credentials for their journalists.
The news outlets, calling the action a threat to press freedom, said that the action was taken to free independent journalism from "government interference."
"Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting," the organisations stated. "Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference."
CNN has reported that the emergency filing is set for review by a federal judge in the DC District Court, with administration officials potentially facing hearings and legal arguments in the coming days.
Trump banned the three news outlets from the White House, and on Saturday the journalists from the affected organisations were denied access to the White House complex, and some had their press credentials confiscated.
However, Trump defended his decision to bar the three news outlets from the White House, characterising the media access ban as an action against "fake news" rather than an attack on constitutional press freedoms.
Trump's statement, posted on Truth Social, read, "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."
In his response to the joint legal challenge filed in the US District Court in Washington, calling the action a threat to press freedom and government interference in independent journalism, Trump strongly rejected allegations and doubled down on his criticism of the news outlets' coverage, instead calling it a "threat to National Security." (ANI)
