Washington Examiner economics columnist Tiana Lowe Doescher said President Donald Trump’s decision to revoke credentials for three media outlets likely will not hold up in court.
“Trump tried to do this in 2018 when he wanted to revoke fake news Jim Acosta’s hard pass,” Doescher said Monday on Newsmax’s The Right Squad. “And what the D.C. District Court said was there was prior precedent set in the 1970 case that was Sherrill v. Knight.”
Trump announced Friday that CNN, MS Now, and Politico were banned from the White House, with reporters later having their hard passes revoked and being denied access to the grounds. As a result, all three outlets responded, stating they intend to sue the Trump administration. Major television networks, including Fox News, ABC, NBC, and CBS, are standing in solidarity with the outlets, particularly with CNN, which is part of the White House TV press pool. The networks have begun to boycott White House pool coverage.
Even so, the outlets have still covered Trump outside the White House, with the president confronting CNN on Tuesday after a reporter was present during his arrival at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Doescher said that while Trump is not required to pick on any reporter for questions in the White House press briefings, they are allowed certain rights once they have already gained access.
“He never needs to call on Kaitlan Collins, he never has to call on Jim Acosta, never, god forbid, needs to call on Brian Stelter,” Doescher said. “However, once you admit a reporter into the press pool, because it is considered a semipublic arena, the judge, the district court judge, back in 2018, said there is some sort of liberty interest protected by a due process right that is created.”
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The ruling requires the president to follow a procedure to revoke access to media members, Doescher said.
“So what that means is, if you want to go through a process of saying, ‘CNN, you made up these stories, or you improperly attributed sources,’ you have to go through a process to take away the hard pass,” Doescher said.