00:00A rift between the mainstream media and President Trump continued to widen on Monday after five
00:05major TV networks announced they would suspend coverage of presidential events after the
00:10White House banned CNN from attending the president's White House TV pool.
00:14The networks ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC have united against the president, who just
00:21last week claimed on Truth Social that his administration was banning CNN, MS Now and
00:27Politico journalists from the White House, quote, effective immediately for allegedly
00:31reporting, quote, fake news. Media outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or
00:35report fiction and lies when they're covering the president of the United
00:39States, the Trump administration, or the United States of America, other fake news
00:44media outlets to follow. President Trump doubled down on his ban Friday when he
00:48said America needed a, quote, fair press and an honest press.
00:52But our country has to have honest news. You know, you don't have a country unless
00:55you have, as I say, borders, good voting, straightening them out. The borders are
01:01unbelievable. And you know what you need? You need a free press. You need a fair press
01:06and an honest press. And CNN, and you know it, and everybody knows it. You're
01:09intelligent. I've known you a long time. You know how fake their reporting is.
01:13The president claimed his edict was the result of, quote, cumulative stories over
01:17the last two years rather than any single story. The Wall Street Journal reported that
01:22the president decided to announce the ban after his executive assistant, Natalie
01:26Harp, showed him a montage of MSN Now anchors critiquing the administration. Over
01:31the weekend, Trump posted an edited image on his Truth Social depicting the three
01:35banned media organizations as large trash bags outside on the White House lawn. But
01:40media orgs were quick to respond. CNN, MSN Now, and Politico issued a joint
01:45statement revealing they plan to file a First Amendment lawsuit against the
01:49president to restore their White House access. In response to the suit, the
01:53president posted on Truth Social that his ban was not a, quote, assault on the
01:56free press, but rather a, quote, assault on the fake news. It is corrupt, purposeful,
02:02pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our
02:06national security and must be stopped now. But the lawsuit was only the
02:11beginning. On Monday, the five major TV networks joined together in solidarity to
02:16shun out the president. According to The Washington Post, Brian Botten, the Fox
02:20News' Washington bureau chief and TV pool chair, wrote in a memo that because of
02:24CNN's ban, the, quote, TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool
02:28coverage of the president. The TV pool is part of the larger White House press
02:32pool, a group of journalists that follow the president and report his daily
02:35activities to inform the public and other news organizations who don't have pool
02:39access. But CNN's ban caused a logistical nightmare for the TV pool, which
02:44constantly rotates which network covers the president. According to The
02:47Washington Post, because of the CNN ban, the pool has no cameras covering the
02:51president's trip to the United Nations. The New York Times reports that although
02:55TV pool cameras won't be pointed at the president, photographers and wire
02:59journalists will still be covering the president's every move.
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