Trump Dragged To Court By CNN, MS NOW, Politico
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued President Donald Trump and other members of his administration todayMonday for banning them from White House grounds, saying it violated their rights to free speech and a free press under the US Constitution’s First Amendment.
The news outlets are seeking a temporary restraining order to block Trump’s action in federal court in Washington, D.C., and could see emergency hearings in the case as soon as this week.
“Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference,” the outlets wrote in a joint statement. “The government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”
Trump announced the ban on Friday on social media and defended it in another post on Monday, claiming without evidence that news media posed a national security threat.
“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,” Trump wrote on Monday. “It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
NN is one of the five news organizations – along with ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC – that make up the primary White House television pool.
They share the costs of covering the president, take turns organizing coverage and share the footage with outlets around the country.
CNN, which had been scheduled to cover Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly on Monday, was not able to provide a pool feed.
In response, the other major TV networks have suspended presidential pool coverage, effectively eliminating the most important video source for White House events.
“This is to advise that, effective today (Monday), the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Bryan Boughton, who runs the Fox News Washington bureau and is the current TV pool chair, said in an email Monday.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties,” Boughton added. “There will be no replacement pool put in place.”/REUTERS
