White House Bars CNN Reporters from Trump’s Tennessee Trip

By Staff, Agencies 

The White House barred CNN reporters from accompanying US President Donald Trump on Saturday during his visit to Tennessee, in another move limiting the network’s coverage of the president’s activities.

CNN had been scheduled to provide shared television coverage of Trump during the visit. However, a list of media organizations accompanying the president that the White House issued Friday evening did not include CNN or any of the other television networks that routinely rotate responsibility for such coverage.

The White House instead listed only Lindell TV, a smaller television network strongly supportive of Trump and run by businessman Mike Lindell, a close ally of the Republican president.

The move came amid a long-running confrontation between Trump's administration and major US media organizations over coverage of his policies and actions.

The shared coverage system involves rotating reporters who accompany the president and provide their material to other media outlets, a practice used because of the limited space available.

Under the arrangement, participating reporters take turns accompanying the president and sharing their coverage with other media organizations. CNN's exclusion from the Tennessee trip therefore prevents its reporters from participating in the shared television coverage assigned to the presidential visit.

Trump last week banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House after accusing the outlets of publishing "false reporting", as per Axios.

The ban was announced last week, and journalists from the three organizations were later denied entry to the White House complex. Reporters from CNN and MS NOW said their press credentials had been deactivated, while Politico said its White House correspondent was also blocked from entering and had her badge seized. 

In response, the three outlets announced plans to sue the Trump administration, accusing the government of violating press freedom protections and interfering with independent reporting.

The three media organizations said on Monday that they had informed the government they were filing a lawsuit to defend their First Amendment rights, arguing that the administration cannot determine which news outlets are allowed access based on disagreements with their coverage.