It didn’t take long for the mainstream media to cave and return to covering the White House after announcing a boycott of television pool coverage in the aftermath of Trump banning CNN, MS Now, and Politico.
Days after Trump announced that the three outlets were banned from the White House, saying they “report FICTION and LIES,” the five major networks, Fox News, CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN, banded together to suspend television pool coverage of Trump.
Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton led the revolt, writing in a letter to the other outlets, “Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”
However, this backfired when Real America’s Voice took over the press pool to cover Trump’s trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Lindell TV and Real America’s Voice were then tapped to be the television pool network to cover Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit in Washington, DC.
On Saturday, Real America’s Voice was tapped again to cover television pool duties for Trump’s trip to Tennessee on board Air Force One. CNN was excluded from the trip, sparking continued outrage from the left-wing media. The Gateway Pundit was also in the pool for President Trump’s travel that day.
CNN, MS Now, and Politico regained access to the White House late last week after a judge ruled that Trump’s ban on the outlets was likely unconstitutional and ordered the White House to restore their access.
However, when CNN was barred from accessing Air Force One, the networks said they plan to continue their boycott.
Now, the New York Times, citing four people familiar with discussions, reports, “under a tentative plan that began taking shape late Friday, the other four networks would return to performing pool duties.”
“Each time that CNN came up in the pool rotation, the group of networks would decide whether to provide a substitute crew,” the report continued, noting that major networks would refuse to cover Real America’s Voice’s pool feed. This happened on Saturday with Real America’s Voice, when networks reportedly declined to provide a substitute and then went on to claim they were unable to cover the White House without a pool camera.
It’s a win for Trump, though, as the Times notes that the resumption of coverage “effectively hands Mr. Trump more control over the list of news outlets granted close-up access to many of his events.”
Still, the report also dishonestly claims that if the TV pool were suspended, in the event of an emergency, “there would be no cameras to film Mr. Trump, leaving the public relatively in the dark.” As has been made abundantly clear, any network that chooses to cover the President when Real America’s Voice is handling television pool duties can access the pool feed.
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