Four Major US Networks Announce Suspension of Joint Coverage of Trump News in Solidarity with CNN
Al-Taj News –
Four major US television networks that make up the joint television coverage pool for President Donald Trump’s activities decided on Monday to suspend this coverage in solidarity with CNN, which the US president barred from the White House.
Bryan Boughton, a representative of Fox and the coordinator of this group of networks tasked with filming the US president throughout the day and distributing the footage to other media outlets, said, “Effective today, the television pool will not be covering events involving the President that would normally fall within the scope of pool coverage.”
The four US media outlets are CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox.
The networks, which were denied access to the White House, announced that they had filed a lawsuit against the Donald Trump administration, which accused part of the press of posing a “national security threat.” CNN, MS NOW, and Politico announced legal action over the revoked access.
The media organizations wrote in a joint statement posted on X, “We notified the government this morning that we are beginning legal proceedings to defend our rights under the First Amendment and the principle that the government does not decide what the press publishes.”
The statement added, “The White House revoked our credentials without prior notice or formal proceedings because it objected to our news coverage. Allowing this to happen without objection threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government pressure.”
The controversial decision was met with strong condemnation from several industry organizations and political officials.
The White House Correspondents’ Association stressed on Saturday that “the American people must be able, through a free and independent press, to hold elected officials accountable, whether government officials approve of that or not.”
Condemning a decision that “violates the First Amendment” to the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press, the association urged the US administration to “immediately restore access” to the journalists concerned.
Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked journalists or media outlets whose coverage of events he dislikes, both during his first term and since returning to power in early 2025. This has taken the form of lawsuits, posts on the Truth Social platform, or verbal confrontations with journalists that have sometimes been extremely heated.
