White House Removes CNN From TV Pool Duties

The Trump administration removed CNN from its duties as the pool representative for television networks on Monday, days after barring journalists from the outlet, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.

CNN said it had been scheduled for TV pool duties this week as part of a longstanding agreement among five major television networks to share responsibility for covering the president’s activities.

But when the White House sent its daily guidance of the president’s schedule on Sunday night, no primary TV pooler was listed for Monday.

The exclusion of CNN was widely expected as President Trump escalated his clashes with the news media. On Friday, he announced he was barring CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. “There’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories,” Mr. Trump said to reporters at the Oval Office.

Journalists from the three news organizations had their badges confiscated when they arrived at the White House complex on Saturday.

Presidents have accommodated pool coverage at the White House for nearly a century. It is extremely rare for a president to travel or hold public events without being accompanied by representatives from the press pool.

Five networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — rotate as the designated television outlet covering presidential events, sharing the financial costs and distributing footage that is carried by news organizations worldwide. CNN had been slated to provide coverage during Mr. Trump’s travel on Monday to New York, where he is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly this week.

It was unclear whether another TV network would be designated as the pool representative to take CNN’s place, or if any network would agree to do so.

CNN, MS NOW and Politico said in a joint statement on Monday that they would sue the Trump administration for barring them from the White House, saying it was a violation of their First Amendment rights to cover the president.

Experts say the president’s ban — which was announced abruptly on his Truth Social platform on Friday — is unlikely to withstand legal scrutiny.