Veteran newsman Dan Rather identified a new sign that President Donald Trump's move to ban media outlets from the White House has crossed a line that is producing real consequences for him.
Writing for his "Steady" Substack, Rather noted that the White House press corps is standing in solidarity — including one outlet that might surprise observers.
"The 'pool' is the five news networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN) that provide television coverage of the president on a rotating basis and share their footage with the rest of the press corps. You will note, perhaps surprisingly, that even Fox joined in this effort," wrote Rather. "In a moment of solidarity, the pool members said on Monday that they would suspend coverage of Trump, effective immediately. This is unprecedented and, unless something changes, will mean there will be no pool cameras covering his trip to New York this week."
Trump is already facing issues as a result of this, with there being no audio at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday as he tried to stage positive coverage for himself.
Media unity hasn't been perfect here, said Rather, as print and radio newsrooms are not all refusing to cover Trump. Moreover, "a stronger, much stronger, show of solidarity would be for the whole White House press corps to stop giving the president any television coverage. So far, that hasn’t happened. But the fact that Fox, such a longtime Trump ally, has joined the effort to protest his anti-press action may be an indicator that even they are sensing that he has gone too far and that the public is tiring of him."
Ultimately, Rather argued, Trump himself will suffer from this, as it weakens his ability to steer the narrative at a moment when the public is enraged about war and deteriorating economic figures.
"Trump thinks he can stem the tide of bad press by getting rid of the people he believes are responsible, but the most responsible party is Trump himself," Rather concluded. "A more effective way to garner better coverage would be to stop giving us so much bad news to report."
