Various news outlets, including Fox News, have agreed to suspend pool reporting at the White House as a way to protest the president’s news ban.
On Friday, President Donald Trump accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of peddling fake news and banned them all from the White House.
‘If they had credibility, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.’
In response, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News announced on Monday that they had suspended White House TV pool reporting.
“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton wrote in an email obtained by Politico.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” he added.
Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and NBC News also released a joint statement about the suspension.
“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” the group wrote.
Many noted that CNN had defended Fox News in 2009 when former President Barack Obama had limited its access. Fox News returned the favor in 2018 when Trump shut out a CNN reporter.
The president justified his ban in comments to reporters Friday.
“I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” he said.
“The ban is because they are fake news, they cannot write the truth,” he added. “If they had credibility, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”
RELATED: CNN says Trump press ban is illegal — then the Trump team THROWS DOWN fiery response
The president had also threatened to expand the ban to include other outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.
In a post Monday on Truth Social, the president compared fake news to a “cancer” afflicting the country.
“It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control,” he wrote. “It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”
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