The White House television pool stopped covering events on Monday, after the Trump administration barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the building. CNN had been scheduled to provide that day's pool feed. Fox News' Washington bureau chief, Bryan Boughton, serving as pool chair, told subscribers there would be no replacement for CNN. “This follows the White House's position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” he said.
The same day, CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued the Trump administration, arguing that their exclusion violated the First Amendment, the right to freedom of speech and expression in the US.
What is the White House TV pool?
Five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — make up the television pool. Rather than every broadcaster sending its own camera crew to every presidential event, coverage duties rotate among the five. The assigned network provides video and audio that other news organisations can then use, a system Politico notes is especially important where space restrictions prevent every outlet from sending its own crew.
The broader White House press pool is a wider group, including television, radio, print and wire journalists, and exists to ensure that presidential coverage reaches the full press corps even when physical space is limited.
There is no clear date for creation of the current five-network arrangement precisely, though The Guardian reports that network cameras have been using the arrangement since the 1950s.
{{/usCountry}}There is no clear date for creation of the current five-network arrangement precisely, though The Guardian reports that network cameras have been using the arrangement since the 1950s.
{{/usCountry}}The wider press pool has a longer history and has evolved over time, The Associated Press reported. The pool has followed the US president into the Oval Office, state dinners, Air Force One and the presidential motorcade, and stood by for addresses to the nation — including in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when John F Kennedy was assassinated.
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The dispute
US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from the White House, calling their reporting “FAKE NEWS” and making the restriction effective immediately. It was enforced on Saturday/ Secret Service agents denied the three organisations’ journalists access to the White House grounds and confiscated their credentials, Politico reported.
On Monday, the three organisations said they would sue, arguing that the government had revoked their credentials because it objected to their reporting, in violation of the First Amendment.
In a joint statement, the five networks part of the TV pool said the public has a “vital interest” in accurate, independent information about the government, and that no administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its coverage.
What happens when the pool stops covering?
Without the pool, the White House supplied its own livestream when Trump launched a new helipad on the South Lawn on Monday. But nearby helicopter noise, with no professional audio equipment to compensate, drowned out much of his remarks, The Guardian reported.
CNN had also been scheduled to provide the pool feed for Trump's trip to New York this week for the UN General Assembly, and the other networks have not stepped in so far. Politico reported that, without the pool, images and video from his UN appearances may be harder for the public to access.
Nonetheless, print, radio and wire-service reporters have continued covering Trump’s movements throughout. Only television pool duties have been affected.
Separately, four organisations in the White House still-photography pool — the New York Times, Washington Post, AP and Agence France-Presse — said they would withhold their pool photographs from Monday’s events in solidarity with the barred outlets. Reuters and Getty, the pool’s other photo agencies, had not released their images as of late Monday afternoon, Politico reported.
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How has the pool changed under Trump?
The White House changed how it selects the press pool before this dispute began. AP reported that last year, the administration ended the decades-long practice of an independent journalists’ association choosing pool members, and began selecting them itself.
But the pool’s traditional function hasn't changed. It continues to ensure that events are covered and that reporting reaches the wider press corps. What's now in question is whether a member the White House had selected on its own can be excluded from its assigned duties, and whether the remaining networks are obliged to fill in.
The administration’s position
Trump has denied that barring the three outlets amounts to an attack on press freedom. In a Truth Social post on Monday, he wrote: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS.” He went on to call “FAKE NEWS” a threat to national security.
US vice-president JD Vance offered another defence. “It’s about basic fairness. They can still report. They still have access to free speech. They're just not going to get an office in the White House anymore,” he said.
CNN, MS NOW and Politico have asked a federal court to temporarily block the restrictions and restore their reporters' access, with a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. Until then, the traditional television pool remains without a replacement for CNN, leaving open how pooled coverage of the president will function while the case plays out.