Solidarity: Lead TV Networks Withdraw From Key White House Job After CNN Ban

On Monday morning, the remaining four major TV networks not banned by the White House — ABC, CBS, NBC, and the Fox News Channel — announced they would be showing solidarity with CNN following Friday’s ban (alongside MS NOW and Politico) by withdrawing from the responsibility of providing “pool” TV coverage of the President’s movements when both inside and outside the White House grounds.

The networks said in a combined statement the following: “This is to advise that effective today, the TV pool will not be covering the events designated as pool coverage of the President. This follows the White House position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”

Media Research Center President David Bozell weighed in with his take:

The boycott comes amid a massive week for the President as foreign policy takes center stage with his visit to the United Nations General Assembly and a state visit later this week by Chinese Communist Party dictator Xi Jinping.

Each day, the five networks rotate the job of having their correspondents, producers, and technicians provide a feed of presidential movements, press conferences, and public Oval Office meetings to viewers.

In other words, without the “pool” feed, there would be no way of seeing Friday’s sparring with the President over the press bans, February 2025’s blow-up between President Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, or any number of clueless Joe Biden’s blank stares into space. But that could soon change, and we’ll get to that in a moment.

The announcement came just after 9:00 a.m. Eastern, and CNN News Central brought in chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins to explain what host John Berman said was something “we’ve never seen...before.”

Collins further explained what this means: “[W]hen the President does anything today, there will be no TV camera with the President that is broadcasting and sharing this footage of what a President does on a daily basis.”

Fact-check: False. There will likely, as of this blog’s publication, be at least some form of a published video feed of the President traveling to New York on Monday afternoon because, while the primary TV pool networks have boycotted, the secondary TV poolers remain on the schedule. For the “out-of-town travel pool,” the “second TV correspondent & crew” will be our friends at Real America’s Voice.

Collins was more on the dot when explaining how the pool itself works, with the space issue being the most relevant (as small confines like the Oval Office can’t fit, say, 50 reporters in at a time):

[W]hen CNN is the assigned pool, all of our reporters and photojournalists would be at the White House at this time, prepared to cover whatever it is the President does that day. Every day it rotates, it’s a different outlet. And so, you know, when I’m in the Oval Office asking the President questions, I’m not just there on behalf of CNN. I’m there on behalf of the entire TV pool. We’re asking questions on behalf of Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC, and then that footage that our photojournalist shoots in the Oval Office of whatever the President is saying is distributed and shared with everyone. It’s a time, and a resource, and space issue, basically. That’s why the pool was created and has existed in some form since the FDR era.

After relitigating the supposed traumatic experiences the three banned outlets had on Saturday, she reiterated the slightly misleading claim that “there will be no camera there on behalf of that group that serves as the TV pool, covering the President, and it’s a major moment in White House coverage and the presidency, where he is not going to have access to that with him in this moment, and obviously has major implications for the free press.”

Without stating it directly, Berman correctly explained that this move is more about the CNN ban, with MS NOW and Politico being secondary (click “expand”):

BERMAN: And we’re talking about the press pool. This means CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were singled out. But this means that NBC, and CBS, and ABC, and Fox News are, in a way, standing by CNN, which was pushed out of the pool.

COLLINS: Yeah, because alternatively, the White House could say, well, actually, we’re not going to let CNN today. Another outlet could come in and bring their cameras and their reporters and their technicians, but instead, the pool is banding together in solidarity and saying, actually, no, that’s not going to happen because the President is — is saying that these certain outlets can’t come in the Oval Office because he doesn’t like their coverage. I mean, he himself called it a free speech ban on Friday.

To see the relevant CNN transcript from September 21, click here.