Trump’s media ban triggers rare TV network revolt and court fight

• CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued Donald Trump, Steven Cheung, Sean M. Curran and Susan Wiles in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging First Amendment retaliation and Fifth Amendment due-process violations.¹
• The outlets want a declaration that the ban is unconstitutional, an injunction blocking its enforcement and the immediate restoration of their White House credentials.¹
• ABC, CBS, Fox News, CNN and NBC suspended their shared presidential television pool rather than replace CNN after the White House barred it from covering Trump’s trip to New York.²
• The boycott removed pooled television coverage of Trump’s events during his UN General Assembly visit, including his planned address on Tuesday, September 22.¹³
• Judge Timothy J. Kelly ordered the administration to respond by Tuesday, September 22, and scheduled a hearing on the emergency restraining-order request for Wednesday, September 23. No injunction had been issued on Monday.⁴

The case turns on whether the president can use access to the White House as a reward for favourable coverage. Trump said he was banning the three outlets because of their “fake news” and “cumulative” reporting, while the White House said access was a privilege rather than a right and accused the organisations of years of false reporting.¹⁵

That argument risks converting a practical press-access system into a presidential loyalty test. The television pool exists because only a limited number of cameras can travel with the president and its footage is shared across broadcasters. By refusing to provide a replacement crew, Fox News joined CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC in making the White House choose between allowing the excluded network to work or accepting less independent coverage of the president’s public movements.²³

Footnotes

1. Complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief, Cable News Network, Inc. v. Trump, US District Court for the District of Columbia, filed September 21, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Fox News, “White House TV pool to suspend coverage of Trump events”, September 21, 2026. ↩ ↩²

3. Bloomberg Law, “CNN, MS NOW, Politico Sue Over Trump’s White House Press Ban”, September 21, 2026. ↩ ↩²

4. OpenClassActions, case summary and docket details for Cable News Network, Inc. v. Trump, September 21, 2026. ↩

5. The White House, “White House Access Is a Privilege — Not a Right”, September 21, 2026. ↩