Five of the top U.S. television networks moved Monday to starve President Donald Trump of coverage by launching a coordinated media blackout, according to a leaked email obtained by Politico.
The move comes after Trump banned three major news outlets — CNN, MS NOW and Politico — from the White House last weekend and revoked their media credentials. The response to the ban was swift, with all three outlets suing the Trump administration Monday on First Amendment grounds.
Also on Monday, Politico reported on an email it had obtained outside of “its official capacity” written by Bryan Boughton, senior vice president and Washington bureau chief for Fox News.
“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” the email reads, with “pool” referring to the small rotating group of journalists who cover the president on behalf of the full press corps.
“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”
The move carries some precedent, with the Obama administration forced to walk back its attempt to prohibit Fox News from covering a Treasury event in 2009 in response to the pool threatening “collective action.”
As noted by Politico, the collective move from the pool could jeopardize media coverage of Trump’s upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly next week in New York, and has already impacted the White House’s plans as of Monday.
“CNN was scheduled to serve as the television pool Monday,” Politico’s report reads. “But a White House ‘daily guidance’ email sent to reporters Sunday night listed no TV pool — which consists of the five major networks, ABC, [CBS], CNN, NBC and Fox News — at all.”
Coincidentally, Politico’s report comes shortly after Zeteo’s Martin Pengelly and Asawin Suebsaeng proposed that media outlets refuse to cover Trump, arguing it to be the most effective tool to force the president to reverse his media bans given his longstanding fixation on the press.