White House Bars CNN From Air Force One Trip, Renews Press Access Dispute

The White House has barred CNN from travelling aboard Air Force One to cover President Donald Trump’s Saturday trip to Tennessee, renewing a dispute over media access days after a judge blocked a broader ban on the network and two other news organisations.

CNN had been scheduled to serve in the television press pool for Trump’s visit to a college football game. The pool gathers footage and reporting on behalf of other networks when space restrictions prevent the wider press corps from attending.

But the White House’s Saturday travel schedule, issued on Friday, listed RAV as the secondary television correspondent and crew without naming CNN or another outlet in the primary television pool position.

According to CNN, its exclusion follows an earlier restriction that prevented it from performing its pool duties during Trump’s trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

Court Restored Credentials, Pool Access Remains Disputed

Trump announced last week that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were being banned from the White House.

A judge subsequently blocked the administration from enforcing that ban and ordered the restoration of affected reporters’ credentials. According to CNN, however, the position on access to the White House press pool remained less clear.

An outside lawyer representing CNN had told anchor Jake Tapper that he believed the restoration of access extended to pool assignments.

The latest exclusion leaves that question unresolved. Its implications for the ongoing litigation involving the three outlets were not immediately clear.

The judge has given the news organisations until Monday to seek a preliminary injunction that would halt enforcement of the broader ban for a longer period.

Networks Had Refused Pool Duties

CNN’s exclusion had already disrupted the television pool’s operations.

Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS refused to perform their pool duties while CNN remained barred, seeking the restoration of regular access.

Coverage resumed on Friday, when CNN served in the pool during Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the National Archives. Its exclusion from Saturday’s Air Force One trip followed that resumption.

MS NOW and Politico participate in separate pool rotations from the five major television networks.

Why One Network’s Access Matters to Others

The television pool supplies footage and information to news organisations beyond whichever network is assigned to cover an event. Its reporting is a principal source of video of presidential speeches, travel and public appearances.

The wider White House pool also includes print, radio and still photography journalists. The arrangement allows independent reporting from aircraft, rooms and other locations that cannot accommodate the entire press corps.

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” White House Correspondents’ Association president Jacqui Heinrich described the consequences of excluding pool journalists.

“That’s the system that allows the networks to share video of the president with the whole country. If they aren’t there, the pool can’t function,” she said.

‘What Are We Missing?’

The White House produces its own footage and livestreams of presidential events. Journalists defending the pool system argue that independently gathered coverage provides a different form of scrutiny.

CBS journalist and former WHCA president Weijia Jiang said independent observers were essential.

“And America cannot have state TV,” she said.

“If the government is only showing you what it wants, then you have to question, what are we missing? And that’s what the pool, that’s what these outlets bring to the table.”

With inputs from ANI