Networks Suspend Pool Coverage of Trump After White House Bars CNN
The major television networks on Monday suspended their pooled coverage of President Trump, breaking a practice that dates back decades after Mr.Trump refused to allow CNN to serve as a pool representative.The move was an extraordinary escalation amid a showdown between the Trump administration and the White House press corps, which began last week when the president barred journalists at CNN, MS NOW and Politico from entering the White House grounds.
Those three outlets sued on Monday to regain access.Despite Mr.Trump’s years of lawsuits and threats against the news media, archrival news organizations have rarely undertaken this kind of collective action.Five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — have long shared the responsibility of providing television coverage of the president, splitting the financial costs and distributing footage that is carried by news outlets worldwide.
The networks perform their duties on a rotation, and CNN had been scheduled to provide coverage for Mr.Trump’s travel on Monday to the United Nations General Assembly.It is extremely unusual for a president to travel or hold public events without being accompanied by representatives from the television pool.
The president’s activities on Monday were still covered by print, radio and wire journalists, along with still photographers.“Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the president,” Bryan Boughton, the Washington bureau chief at Fox News, wrote in a note to television pool members that was obtained by The New York Times.(Mr.
Boughton is the acting chair of the television pool consortium; the networks rotate the chairmanship on a quarterly basis.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you f...