3 News Outlets Sue Trump Over W. H. Reporting~Trump Wants Good Reporting About Him
Trump Said "These People are in My Hous~The People's House and I don't have to let them in"
New York Times
CNN, MS NOW and Politico said on Monday that they would sue the Trump administration for barring them from the White House grounds, saying it was a violation of their First Amendment rights to cover the president.
President Trump on Friday declared a ban on the three news outlets, saying he was fed up with what he described as negative coverage. On Saturday, reporters from each outlet were denied access to the White House. CNN was removed from its duties as the White House pool representative for television networks on Monday.
The news organizations said in a joint statement that they had informed the U.S. government they would be filing a lawsuit on Monday.
“Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” they said. “Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
The joint complaint, which the outlets released but have not yet filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, said that the “Constitution does not allow a president or any other government official to deprive the press of their First Amendment rights and liberty and property interests with no notice or process based solely on his dislike of the content of their reporting.”
The news outlets are planning to ask the court to restore their access to the White House as quickly as possible. They will file a separate motion seeking an emergency order that would remain in effect while the litigation unfolds. A CNN representative said that the documents would be filed with the court on Monday morning.
“As a result of the ban, they have lost the ability to perform essential newsgathering at the seat of the executive branch, where critically important newsworthy events occur every day,” the complaint reads.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the planned litigation.
In a Monday post on Truth Social, the platform he owns, Mr. Trump wrote: “The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America.”
The president’s ban represents a significant escalation in his ongoing battles with the news media, particularly in Washington. Mr. Trump has brought friendlier outlets into the White House briefing room and moved to bar one publication, The Associated Press, from the Oval Office, which is also being challenged in court. But he had not barred any outlets from the entire White House grounds.
Press freedom advocates and other media outlets have blasted the ban as unconstitutional. “No news organization — or person — should be retaliated against by the government over the words they use,” said Lauren Easton, chief communications officer for The A.P., in a Saturday statement.
In previous legal fights about journalist access, federal courts have ruled that once government officials open their doors to a press corps they may not boot specific outlets just because they don’t like the gist of their reporting.
During Mr. Trump’s first term, the White House rescinded the credentials of two journalists, CNN’s Jim Acosta and the Playboy correspondent Brian Karem. Both were restored after separate court challenges, and in each case, judges highlighted a requirement that before yanking press passes, the White House must provide the affected journalists a chance to rebut the grounds for doing so.
In this case, the outlets “received zero advance notice,” according to the planned lawsuit.
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