Fox News’s decision to suspend its responsibilities as part of the TV pool in a demonstration of unity in response to President Donald Trump’s press access ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico is leaving the president with a glaring cable news coverage vacuum.
Fox News announced on Monday that it, along with ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News, would not take part in the TV pool, at least for Trump’s trip this week to New York City for his address to the U.N. General Assembly. The TV pool is the rotating roster of the three major TV news networks and two cable channels that help all reporters cover the administration.
None of the major cable networks, apart from Fox, cover nearly all of Trump’s public appearances live. Fox’s coverage gives millions of viewers a close-up glimpse of the president, but the network’s decision to stand in solidarity with its colleagues means Trump’s presence on cable television, at least for now, will be darker.
While seemingly inside baseball for the Beltway, technical problems were on full display Monday at the White House, underscoring the importance the networks have in broadcasting the president and his message.
The White House attempted to work around the TV press pool with what is known as the “secondary TV pool” to record Trump, even though those outlets have fewer resources to transmit the images. But it was difficult to hear the president during the ribbon-cutting ceremony for his new heliport on the South Lawn, leading to mockery on social media.
Fox News’s decision is also the cable news channel’s latest demonstration of independence from Trump and the administration, despite it being one of the president and his aides’ preferred platforms for mass communication.
Fox News has had a complicated relationship with Trump and his administrations, past and present. The most notable instance was on election night in 2020 when the president, Jared Kushner, and other campaign aides tried to pressure the news channel, including then-Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch, into reversing its decision that former President Joe Biden won the state of Arizona.
“F*** him,” Murdoch reportedly said of Trump.
The channel later settled a $787.5 million defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems after broadcasting false statements about the voting machines.
Most recently, the news channel fired Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo this month amid reports she had shared editorial guidance from executives not to give credibility to Trump’s allegations that the 2020 election was “stolen.”
The White House downplayed the importance of Fox’s decision to remove itself from the TV pool with the other networks.
“The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office,” a White House official told the Washington Examiner. “The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside.”
Fox News’s decision comes after CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were advised via a Truth Social post on Friday that they could not participate in their respective pools or even access the White House’s grounds, where they all pay for space to work and from which to broadcast.
While reporters from CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were not frog-marched from the White House on Friday, Secret Service agents started revoking their so-called hard pass identification cards on Saturday.
“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government,” the TV networks and cable channels wrote Monday in a joint statement. “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
A spokeswoman for Fox News declined to provide the Washington Examiner with a comment about its TV pool suspension decision.
But Republican strategist Alex Conant told the Washington Examiner that he is not surprised by Fox News’s decision, saying the news channel “has generally been very supportive of media access.”
On Monday, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico sued Trump in federal court in Washington, D.C., with U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly shortly afterward ordering the Department of Justice to respond to the outlets’ request for a temporary restraining order against the press ban on First Amendment and due process grounds by Tuesday. The Trump-nominated judge, who ruled against Trump in a similar challenge brought by CNN’s Jim Acosta in 2018, has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday.
Simultaneously, Republican strategist Douglas Heye dismissed the idea that Fox News’s decision could change Trump’s mind about the press ban.
That point was proven Monday, as Trump indicated he would appeal the networks’ request for a restraining order.
“We’ll go for appeal because Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World,” he wrote on social media. “It is called the Oval Office, and it should be treated with Decorum, Respect, and Dignity, not defiled by Third Rate Clowns, who purposefully distort, twist, and degrade with everything they write or publish. Virtually every story about me, or anything having to do with me, is negative, wrong and, in many cases, DANGEROUS for our Country!”
TRUMP SAYS HE’LL FIGHT CNN, MS NOW, AND POLITICO LAWSUIT
The White House, too, cited previous examples of administrations limiting access to the press, such as under former Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.
“The First Amendment protects their right to publish; it does not entitle them to a hard pass, briefing room seat, or place in the press pool,” the White House wrote in a statement. “Access changes are nothing new. What is new, however, is the sudden claim that it becomes sacred only when the outlets are friendly to the Radical Left. The rule was never ‘every outlet gets in.’ It was always ‘our side stays in.’”