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US News Outlets Return to White House 09/25 06:27
Three news organizations banned from the White House for days were back
Thursday after a judge handed CNN, MS NOW and Politico a reprieve in an
extraordinary showdown between President Donald Trump and outlets whose
coverage he dislikes.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Three news organizations banned from the White House for
days were back Thursday after a judge handed CNN, MS NOW and Politico a
reprieve in an extraordinary showdown between
https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump and outlets whose
https://apnews.com/article/white-house-media-ban-trump-cnn-032e2bf36028b02f37ad2
9ae4dba450b.
But media coverage of Trump's White House was hardly normal. On a
high-profile day when
https://apnews.com/article/trump-xi-summit-economy-military-4e78d518f0256ebf5fc8
d044dfdbd67e Washington and
https://apnews.com/article/republicans-democrats-xi-visit-trump-f563a06fd60e9f94
855c78d2426370b2 a state dinner, no major American network was airing live
coverage.
After the White House banned CNN from a rotation of five major U.S.
broadcast outlets who take turns shooting and sharing video, the other four --
in a show of solidarity -- were still declining to participate in the so-called
https://apnews.com/article/trump-pool-ban-cnn-msnow-politico-dc1a144d37a5d2e9048
8eec110ca9835.
Though CNN and MS NOW were back on the White House grounds Thursday, both
news outlets said their journalists were denied access to Xi's state dinner
arrival. CNN wrote in a blog post that the White House said it would only allow
a photojournalist and an audio technician to the event, and refused to allow a
reporter and a producer entry.
MS NOW reported that journalist Laura Barrn-Lpez was also denied entry to
the arrival ceremony on the portico ahead of the state dinner. Barrn-Lpez was
one of the journalists whose press credentials were reinstated under the
judge's order.
Reporters and producers from other networks were allowed in, CNN wrote.
The president posted online that TV networks "refused to cover one of the
Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years ... because they
knew how good it would be, they didn't want credit to be given to "TRUMP."
It was a chaotic day for the media at the White House and
https://apnews.com/article/trump-ban-ms-now-media-cnn-politico-72f9acf68244ca70e
9078d9d3661c722
Initially, in the morning, CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists were denied
entry. A Secret Service agent had confiscated their credentials as part of
https://apnews.com/article/trump-ban-ms-now-media-d160e253453229600ce54f8e913515
23. After the ruling for the outlets in the early hours Thursday, White House
operations officials were notified to restore access to the affected reporters,
but said they needed time to find, reactivate and deliver their entry badges.
The process took over two hours, according to an administration court filing.
In his decision to provisionally lift the ban, U.S. District Judge Timothy
Kelly ordered the White House to "immediately return, reinstate, and restore"
the three outlets' access. He said they had met the legal thresholds to obtain
a temporary restraining order and were likely to succeed in showing that their
press passes were revoked without due process.
The ruling did not address CNN's removal from the White House video pool.
The White House did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The judge's ruling issued a temporary order
Kelly -- whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a
https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-entertainment-jim-acosta-0988fd076764910bc2
d379df5cf659a6 in a similar case in 2018 -- said the government must have clear
standards for conduct that would lead to revoking a press pass. He called the
standard of objectionable reporting outlined in letters that the White House
sent the outlets "so vague it hardly does the trick."
The judge also made clear he did not buy the administration's argument that
the news outlets' reporting endangered national security -- and noted that
Trump himself had not used that argument in the beginning, focusing solely on
what he called negative coverage.
Theodore Boutrous Jr., the news outlets' attorney, said the judge's quick
ruling vindicated the freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law.
"I think we're going to end up stronger because of this, and this tactic of
just attacking the press, attacking individual journalists, is going to be
discredited," Boutrous said in an interview on MS NOW Thursday afternoon. "The
law is just clearly on our side here," he said.
The temporary restraining order -- typically designed to preserve the status
quo pending a closer review of the case by the court -- expires in two weeks.
The judge gave both sides until Oct. 5 to file their arguments over whether he
should consider issuing a longer-lasting ruling called a preliminary
injunction. Kelly said he "intends to rule expeditiously" on the preliminary
injunction request.
Attorneys debated access to the White House and any risk to national
security
Boutrous argued in the hearing that there was an urgent need for renewed
access, saying that the ban caused irreparable harm to the outlets at a time of
momentous news events. "We're at war," he told the judge. "We have
https://apnews.com/live/trump-xi-china-cnn-unga-news-updates-09-23-2026 to
Washington."
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik, in his argument, reiterated the
administration's point that the president has the right to choose who gets into
the White House.
"Access to the White House is a privilege, not a right," Velchik said.
In arguing that Trump was not engaging in viewpoint discrimination -- the
government singling out specific media outlets for the content of what they say
or publish -- Velchik said the president had criticized other news
organizations, but not banned them. He noted, for example, that Trump had
called ABC "the worst."
Major networks refrained from covering Trump for the media pool
On Wednesday, after the hearing, the major networks refused to air footage
of Trump without assurances that CNN would be permitted back into the video
pool.
At Joint Base Andrews, where the president formally welcomed Xi, journalists
from Fox News, CBS and NBC were present but not shooting video. The major
networks also declined to participate in the video pool for the state dinner.
The chair of the TV press pool, Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan
Boughton, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday
afternoon. Earlier this week, Boughton sent an email seen by The Associated
Press that advised the TV pool would not be covering events designated as pool
coverage of the president after the White House prevented CNN from taking part
in the pool.
Other television outlets whose crews were present for some or both events,
according to signs on their tripods and cameras, were NewsNation, Newsmax,
Right Side Broadcasting Network, One America News and LindellTV.
The Associated Press said it provided video coverage of Trump greeting Xi to
its customers, so they could decide whether to broadcast. "We did not stream
the coverage on our own platforms, including APNews.com or our YouTube
channel," said an AP spokesman, Patrick Maks.
In an advisory to customers, AP said it would not have independent video
coverage of meetings between Trump and Xi. It noted that a U.S. government
handout live feed could be accessed on the White House website.
The AP was one of some 50 groups filing an amicus brief ahead of Wednesday's
hearing, urging the court to immediately restore the three outlets' White House
access.
Some network personalities were invited guests at the state dinner
Paramount CEO David Ellison, who is several days away from closing a
multibillion-dollar merger that will give him control of CBS, CNN and various
streaming platforms, was a guest at the state dinner along with his wife.
So were some Fox News employees, including anchor Bret Baier and
commentators Laura Ingraham and Jesse Watters.
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