CNN, MS NOW and Politico said their journalists were denied access to the White House grounds early Saturday and that their press passes were confiscated, a day after President Donald Trump said he would ban them — and that other media organizations would follow.
Numerous press freedom organizations said the president’s attempt to ban journalists from reporting at the White House was unconstitutional, and the media organizations all said they would fight the restrictions and continue reporting on the president.
“CNN’s mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism,” a CNN spokesperson said in a statement after its reporter, Betsy Klein, said she was denied access Saturday and her press pass seized by Secret Service agents.
“A few minutes ago, our colleague Cheyenne Haslett attempted to enter the White House to do her job as a POLITICO reporter,” Politico’s global editor in chief Jonathan Greenberger said in a statement. “Secret Service denied her entry to the complex and confiscated the pass that allows her access to the White House. We stand by her and all reporters here covering the White House. As we said yesterday, we will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”
MS NOW said in a statement after its journalist was banned Saturday that it “intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.”
Breaking with long-running protocol for relations between the executive office and the press, Trump said Friday he would ban MS NOW, CNN and Politico from the White House, saying he disliked how they covered him. “They’re fake news,” he said Friday.
Free speech advocacy groups condemned the ban, calling it a violation of the First Amendment, which protects free speech and prohibits punishment of journalists based on the content of their reporting. “This is about more than the rights of journalists,” White House Correspondents’ Association President Jacqui Heinrich said in a statement. The association represents journalists and media outlets that cover the White House, from MS NOW to Fox News. “It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.”
Asked about journalists being denied access, the White House referred The Washington Post to Trump’s earlier comments.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote Friday in a post on Truth Social. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
Akayla Gardner, a White House reporter for MS NOW, described on air how she tried to scan her badge to enter the White House grounds but was told it was “disabled.” An MS NOW producer who was with her was able to enter, but a photographer “had their badge taken this morning,” she added.
“This is the first action we know of, of them actually denying us entry into the White House,” Gardner said.
CNN reporter Klein described how Secret Service agents said her press pass had been deactivated and refused to let her into the building.
MS NOW and CNN journalists began reporting across the street from the White House on Saturday.
Trump’s attempt to ban media outlets from the White House comes as people familiar with internal White House deliberations described him as clear-eyedabout the bleak political landscape facing Republicans in November’s midterm elections. Polls show Trump is deeply unpopular and that most Americans disapprove of his handling of major policy issues, from the economy to immigration.
Bruce D. Brown, president of Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, predicted in a statement Friday that the ban on media organizations would be quickly struck down by the courts, if challenged.
“A ban like this would be flatly unconstitutional,” Brown said. “The First Amendment is clear that once the White House invites in some journalists, it can’t ban others because it doesn’t like their reporting.”
The post CNN, MS NOW, Politico say journalists blocked from White House after Trump announces ban appeared first on Washington Post.
