Washington: The White House signalled Friday night that CNN would be left off Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s Saturday trip, the latest media restriction from the administration in an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications.
The news organisation was replaced by Real America’s Voice News, a conservative outlet.
The news came just after journalists from three news outlets that Trump banned last week from the White House grounds returned to the executive complex with TV cameras, laptops and microphones in hand.
The US network video pool for the White House was back in operation Friday, for the first time since President Donald Trump banned three news outlets in an extraordinary showdown over media access.
At noon on CNN, viewers could see Trump and President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives, along with Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi’s wife. The banner along the bottom of the screen read: “Trump and China’s Xi Visit National Archives.” It was a routine report from a state visit – but for the fact that CNN had not aired live video of Trump in several days.
“As of now, all systems are go,” said a person familiar with the pool, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation.
The pool consists of five major US broadcast outlets that take turns shooting and sharing video. When the White House banned CNN – which belongs to the pool – from White House grounds, along with MS NOW and Politico, the other four pool providers declined to participate in a show of solidarity.
A judge temporarily struck down the ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday, but his ruling didn’t directly address the pool. The networks continued to refrain from covering Trump as part of the pool, even as reporters from all three outlets were allowed back in the White House.
CNN was not commenting directly Friday, referring instead to its editorial coverage. But Brian Stelter, the network’s media analyst, posted on X that CNN had a pool assignment at the National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network’s credentials.
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