America’s biggest television networks are resuming pooled coverage of US President Donald Trump, ending a boycott staged in solidarity with three news organisations he had barred from the White House.
“There will be pool coverage,” CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes said on Friday, speaking live from the White House grounds, where the network’s access had been restored the previous day.
CNN said it would be at the National Archives, where Trump is due to be given a tour of the building alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping. “CNN will be at the National Archives. CBS will take over the pool here at the White House,” Holmes said. CBS had been named as the network responsible for covering the day’s events, according to the president’s public schedule.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump banned CNN, MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) and Politico from the White House last week, saying he was unhappy with their reporting. The ban was announced on 18 September. The three outlets challenged it in court, and their journalists were readmitted at midday on Thursday after a federal judge ruled the ban was likely unconstitutional and ordered their access restored immediately.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly found the outlets were likely to show that their passes had been withdrawn without proper due process, and dismissed the administration’s claim that the ban was driven by national security concerns. Kelly was appointed by Trump. The case is continuing, and his temporary restraining order will remain in force for two weeks.
On Monday, in an unprecedented show of support for the three outlets, four of the largest US networks (ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC) refused to provide pool coverage of the president until the ban was lifted. In a rare joint statement, the networks, together with CNN, said no government should penalise a news organisation because it disapproves of its journalism.
CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC split the cost of covering the president’s activities and take turns leading that coverage, supplying footage to other media outlets under a long-standing arrangement known as pool coverage.
The networks’ refusal meant that until now there had been no pooled footage of Xi’s visit to Washington. No major US network carried live coverage of Thursday’s state dinner for the Chinese leader, and both CNN and MS NOW said their journalists had been denied access to his arrival.
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