The White House television press pool that covers events by President Donald Trump on a rotating basis will stop covering those events because of the White House’s ban on CNN from acting as a member of that five-member pool, CNN reported Monday.
CNN was barred from covering Trump as the designated TV pooler on Monday, when the president is visiting New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
The decision by the other four members of the TV press pool to no longer cover Trump’s events comes as CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, said they are filing a lawsuit against Trump to overturn a ban of those three media outlets from the White House.
In addition to CNN, the other members of the White House TV pool are NBC News, ABC News, CBS News and Fox News.
Members of TV and other media pools rotate traveling with Trump and covering his White House events, and agree to share video footage, photos, audio, and quotes from those events with other members of the media.
Bryan Boughton, Fox News’ Washington bureau chief, and the the acting chair of the TV pool consortium, in a note to pool members obtained by The New York Times, said, “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” Mr. Boughton wrote. “There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal.”
“We will provide updates as this situation develops,” Boughton said.
The pool members, in a joint statement posted on X by NBC News’ communications department, said, “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 statement said.