Donald Trump’s White House has opened another front in its escalating war with CNN — this time aboard Air Force One.
CNN was scheduled to take its turn Saturday as part of the five-network television pool traveling with the president as Trump headed to Knoxville, Tennessee.
But when the White House issued its guidance for the trip, CNN was gone.
In its place: Real America’s Voice News, a conservative network that isn’t even a member of the rotating network television pool.
The move came just two days after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily blocked Trump’s broader ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico and ordered the administration to restore their access to the White House grounds.
That ruling followed Trump’s extraordinary decision to bar the three organizations after repeatedly attacking their coverage as “fake news.”
Kelly found that the outlets were likely to succeed on their First Amendment claims and said the administration had failed to provide evidence supporting its claim that their reporting presented a national-security threat.
But there is an important distinction.
Kelly’s temporary order specifically dealt with access to the White House grounds. It did not directly address seats aboard Air Force One or assignments within the presidential press pool.
CNN and the other organizations have argued that the court’s protection should extend to pool access as well.
And Saturday’s decision immediately put that unresolved question back in the spotlight.
The television pool exists because every network cannot travel everywhere with the president. Instead, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC traditionally rotate assignments, with the network on duty providing video to the broader press corps.
CNN was supposed to have Saturday’s assignment.
Instead, the White House gave the position to Real America’s Voice — an outlet outside that five-network rotation.
The timing is especially striking.
When Trump initially banned CNN from White House grounds, the other four television networks suspended their participation in the pool rather than simply take CNN’s assignments.
The pool finally returned to operation Friday.
Then came CNN’s scheduled turn Saturday.
And CNN was excluded again.
Trump has made no secret of his anger toward the network.
He again attacked CNN and MS NOW on Saturday morning, calling them “FAKE NEWS” and complaining about the overwhelmingly negative coverage he says he receives from the networks.
But that is precisely what makes the escalating fight over access so consequential.
A presidential press pool isn’t designed to reward outlets for favorable coverage. Its purpose is to ensure that journalists can document the president’s activities and distribute that reporting and footage to the wider public.
And after a federal judge had already intervened once in Trump’s effort to exclude CNN and other outlets, the White House has now found itself in another confrontation over exactly who gets access to the president.
This time, the battleground isn’t the White House briefing room.
It’s Air Force One.
About the Author
The Only Fake news is Donald Trump and trump shit show of Trump’s leadership from the White House. But what do we expect from a weak, old. 80 years old Pedophile?