The Trump White House media ban has been called many things:
Unamerican
A violation of the 1st Amendment
Petty
In the federal lawsuit challenging the media ban, CNN/MSNOW/Politico argue: “The public at large suffers for however long the unconstitutional ban restricts access to current and complete information about their government.”
As a former network correspondent who holds a White House press pass, let me give you another description of the media ban:
It is Trump beating up a very vulnerable target: Corporate news companies
First things first: A sitting President of the United States must be followed by a press pool. We saw the pool’s value on Sept 11, 2001 when President Bush was tracked by a small group of reporters aboard Air Force One amid the terror strikes. And it was valuable on March 30, 1981 when President Reagan was shot.
That doesn’t mean the pool must platform lies!
But some version of a pool must be in place.
Having said that, there’s another reason some national journalists want their access to Trump…. even though Trump often uses his access to spread conspiracy theories and to namecall and misogynistically belittle the reporters in the pool.
I learned about that reason on February 13, 2024 – to my great shock – while sitting in an empty ballroom at a hotel on Long Island.
