On Friday, Sept. 18, President Donald Trump announced that CNN, Politico and MS NOW would be banned from the White House, accusing the three news organizations of reporting “fiction and lies” about his administration.
Three days later, the outlets took the dispute to court. CNN, Politico and MS NOW sued the Trump administration, arguing the ban violated their First Amendment rights for freedom of speech and the press.
The move disrupted the White House television press pool. The pool consists of five networks, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC, which take turns recording and sharing video of the president’s events with other news organizations. After CNN was removed, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC stopped participating in solidarity, temporarily putting the pool on hold.
A pattern of press restrictions
Trump’s conflict with the press did not begin with the latest restrictions.
In November 2018, the Trump administration revoked CNN correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House press credentials following a heated confrontation. Acosta questioned Trump about his characterization of the migrant caravan traveling through Mexico as an “invasion.” As Acosta continued questioning the president, a White House aide attempted to take the microphone from him. Acosta resisted and continued trying to ask questions. Trump then pointed his finger at Acosta, and told him, “CNN should be ashamed of itself having you working for them, you are a rude and terrible person.”
This latest dispute extends beyond a single reporter. Trump’s administration argued in court that access to the White House is a privilege rather than a right and accused the three outlets of publishing false information and sensitive material.
The consequences became particularly visible when Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Washington.
Trump welcomes Xi Jinping as the press fight continues
On Thursday, Sept. 24, when Xi was visiting the White House, no major American television network was airing live coverage. The White House described the meeting as a “historic state visit.” It was the first visit by a Chinese president to the White House in more than a decade.
On the same day, a federal court order by Judge Timothy Kelly required the White House to immediately restore the outlets’ access. CNN and MS NOW nevertheless faced further restrictions while covering Xi’s arrival. Journalists were turned away as Secret Service agents confiscated their hard passes. About an hour before Xi was scheduled to arrive, the White House finally allowed CNN to cover the event, but only with a photographer and an audio technician, excluding its reporter and producer. MS NOW correspondent Laura Barrón-López was also denied entry.
Despite his own decision to bar the outlets from the White House, Trump later criticized media outlets on Truth Social for not airing Xi’s arrival ceremony: “CNN and [MS Now] to show you how fake they are, today refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years.”
He added that the event was “magnificent” and “actually made for television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP.'”
The timing of the dispute has created an unusual contrast. Trump was welcoming Xi, whose government exercises extensive control over the Chinese media, while his own administration was simultaneously fighting major American news organizations over their access to the White House.
Trump & press freedom
During a CNN interview in September, Trump’s former Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said she had heard Trump make comments about journalists during separate bilateral meetings with Chinese and North Korean leaders. According to her recollection, Trump “told them on both occasions, the dictators, that is, that the press aren’t they animals, they’re crazy, you have the right idea.”
The interview’s host, Erin Burnett, said that “China’s Xi Jinping does have absolute control over the media. He has the power to silence dissenting voices. And that’s exactly what Trump is doing on the same day that he meets with Xi.”
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., added, “Trump aspires to be Kim Jong Un or President Xi or Putin, to lead a country where he’s the absolute dictator and can control things.”
The comments point to a larger question about the role of the press in the United States. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press are protected by the First Amendment, which was adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791. These protections are part of the broader tradition of freedom and liberty that has shaped the country’s constitutional history.
When a president restricts access for major news organizations over coverage he considers unfavorable, it creates a sharp tension between the powers of the presidency and the constitutional principles that protect an independent press.
The question of presidential power
For now, journalists are back inside the White House, and the television pool is operating again. But the confrontation has left behind a question that the courts will have to answer: Can access to the government be withdrawn when a president believes the press is too negative or inaccurate?
If presidents can determine which news organizations receive access based on how they cover the administration, the boundaries between political power and independent journalism could become difficult to define.
The stakes are particularly high in a country where freedom of speech and freedom of the press are constitutionally protected. For more than two centuries, these freedoms have been central to American political life. As those rights face growing restrictions from the powers that be, concerns are mounting over the future of freedom and liberty in the United States. What will America become if the freedoms that shaped its history are gradually weakened?
Featured image: “White House Press Briefing” by Trump White House Archived, Public Domain Mark
Edited by Abbigail Earl & James Sutton
