Major television networks in the US will not show live events with President Donald Trump. This is in protest against the White House not allowing three news outlets to cover events.
The networks, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC, said on Monday that they would stop airing presidential events due to the White House’s ban on CNN.
These networks, along with CNN, form the group of five that share coverage of the president's events. They take turns showing live video to other news outlets.
Mr Trump claimed that CNN, Politico, and MS Now kept reporting “fiction and lies” about his government. He stopped them from covering the White House without giving any proof for his claims last Saturday.
This latest action is a protest against the White House’s choice to limit access for these three media outlets.
In a joint statement on Monday, the five networks in the TV pool said, “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting.”
In a memo to the White House Press Corps, the Fox News Washington bureau chief, Bryan Boughton, who also chairs the TV pool, said, “This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President.”
He added, “There will be no replacement pool put in place. All other pool coverage will continue as normal, including Congress, VIPs, and selected events in Washington and around the country.”
This decision came soon after the three news organisations that were banned announced they had filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington.
These news platforms accused the Trump administration of stepping on their First Amendment rights to free press and Fifth Amendment rights to due process.
They also asked a federal judge to handle the case quickly.
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