CNN, MS NOW and Politico file lawsuit against Trump’s White House ban
CNN, Politico and MS NOW have announced plans to take legal action against the Trump administration after their journalists were barred from accessing the White House.
President Donald Trump announced the restrictions on Friday, accusing the three media organisations of publishing what he described as “fiction or lies” about his administration. The outlets said their reporters were denied entry to the White House on Saturday.
In a joint statement on Monday, the organisations said they would go to court to defend the principle that government authorities should not determine what the press is permitted to report.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court in Washington, with the media organisations asking a judge to rule that the restrictions are unconstitutional and to prevent the administration from enforcing them.
The dispute has also triggered a broader response from major US television networks. ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC said they would suspend their participation in the White House television pool, which allows broadcasters to share coverage of presidential events.
The networks said the public has a strong interest in receiving independent and accurate information about the government, adding that media access should not be restricted because an administration disagrees with its reporting.
CNN, which was scheduled to provide pool coverage of Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, was prevented from carrying out the assignment. Its usual booth in the White House press area was left empty, while the network instead broadcast from a public pavement outside the secured grounds.
Trump responded to the planned lawsuit on his Truth Social platform, referring to the outlets as “Third Rate Clowns” and accusing them of producing negative and what he called “fake news” coverage.
He argued that organisations which publish what he considers false or defamatory reports should not have access to the White House, and suggested that his administration would likely appeal any court decision against it.
The First Amendment to the US Constitution protects freedom of the press, and courts have traditionally interpreted it as limiting the government’s ability to discriminate against news organisations because of the content of their reporting.
Trump said his decision to restrict CNN, Politico and MS NOW was based not on specific reports but on what he described as a cumulative pattern of coverage over several years. He also indicated that other news organisations could face similar restrictions, naming The New York Times and The Washington Post as examples of outlets he considers to be “fake news.”
The latest dispute follows other clashes between the Trump administration and the media. In February, the White House announced that it would take control of the press pool, which had previously been managed by the White House Correspondents’ Association for more than a century.
That same month, the administration restricted access for Associated Press journalists and photographers to locations such as the Oval Office and Air Force One over the agency’s continued use of the term “Gulf of Mexico” rather than “Gulf of America.” The Associated Press subsequently sued, with that case still ongoing.
Previous US administrations have also faced disputes over media access. In 2009, the Obama administration attempted to exclude Fox News from a press pool interview with an administration official, but the decision was reversed after the other television networks objected. Unlike the current restrictions involving CNN, MS NOW and Politico, the Obama administration’s action was limited to a single interview.
Trump has frequently clashed with major news organisations, and his administration has pursued legal action against outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC. Some of those cases have ended in multi-million-dollar settlements, while the administration’s lawsuit against the BBC remains ongoing.
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