WASHINGTON — Major United States television networks on Monday suspended their pooled coverage of President Donald Trump after the White House refused to allow CNN to serve as the designated pool representative during his trip to the United Nations General Assembly.
The decision marked an unusual escalation in the growing confrontation between the Trump administration and the White House press corps, following the administration’s recent restrictions on access for several news organisations.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico said on Monday that they would sue the Trump administration in an effort to regain access to the White House grounds after journalists from the three outlets were barred from entering the premises.
The dispute intensified after the White House rejected CNN’s participation in the television pool, despite the network having been scheduled to provide pooled coverage of Trump’s movements on Monday.
The five major television networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — have traditionally shared responsibility for providing television coverage of presidential events. Under the arrangement, the networks rotate coverage duties, share production costs and distribute footage to broadcasters and news organisations around the world.
CNN was scheduled to provide the pool coverage for Trump’s Monday trip to the United Nations General Assembly.
The television pool system is designed to ensure that at least one broadcast crew has access to presidential events and can distribute footage to other networks and media organisations that cannot attend.
It is highly unusual for a US president to travel or hold public events without representatives of the television pool accompanying him.
However, Trump’s activities on Monday were still expected to receive coverage from print, radio and wire-service journalists, as well as still photographers.
In a message to members of the television pool on Monday, Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton said the networks had decided to suspend coverage of events designated for the presidential pool.
“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Boughton wrote in the message obtained by The New York Times.
Boughton is serving as acting chairman of the television pool consortium, whose chairmanship rotates among the participating networks every quarter.
The collective decision by the networks is particularly notable because rival television organisations have historically maintained the pool arrangement despite their competition for viewers and advertising revenue.
The confrontation comes against the backdrop of Trump's long-running disputes with news organisations and his repeated criticism of sections of the American media.
The latest dispute has raised questions about the traditional relationship between the White House and the press corps, particularly over journalists' access to the president and the administration.
CNN and the other affected outlets have maintained that restrictions on press access interfere with their ability to report on the administration. The White House, however, has defended its authority to determine access to presidential events.
The legal action threatened by CNN, MS NOW and Politico could further intensify the dispute, potentially placing questions about press access and the administration’s authority before the courts.
For now, the suspension by the television networks means that Trump’s presidential movements will continue to be covered by other members of the press corps, but without the customary shared television pool coverage.
The development represents one of the most significant collective responses by major US television networks to restrictions imposed on presidential press access in recent years.
Source: Nyttimes
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