President Trump was, once again, all over American television screens on Tuesday.
Almost every major news channel — with the exception of CNN — carried a live feed of Mr. Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly, even as five networks continued to suspend pool coverage of the president after he banned several outlets from the White House.
How does that add up?
The answer is United Nations TV, a U.N.-operated broadcasting system that functions as a kind of C-SPAN for events taking place on the U.N. campus in Manhattan.
U.N. TV is not part of the five-network consortium that takes turns as the designated camera crew for many presidential events, especially in small spaces like the Oval Office. That group — consisting of ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — suspended its pool duties on Monday in solidarity with CNN, after Mr. Trump barred its journalists from the White House. (CNN, alongside two other banned outlets, has sued to regain access.)
U.N. TV is filming speeches at the General Assembly, and many networks on Tuesday carried its feed of Mr. Trump’s address. In most cases, the networks included an onscreen caption that identified the U.N. as the source of the footage, to distinguish from their own cameras. (The New York Times also carried the live U.N. feed of Mr. Trump’s speech.)
CNN was the exception. The channel aired other stories, including news about the cause of death of the actress Hayden Panettiere, as Mr. Trump spoke. After the president concluded, CNN aired some short clips.
“Despite the White House barring CNN and other news organizations from the presidential press pool, we do have a live signal of the president’s remarks provided by United Nations television,” the CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer told viewers. “We will monitor his speech and bring you any newsworthy moments as they happen.”
For casual consumers of the news, these technical distinctions may not matter: Mr. Trump was once again receiving near-blanket coverage, a day after he disappeared from many screens as the five networks suspended their pool duties and other outlets declined to publish photographs of his events until midnight.
When Mr. Trump entered the United Nations on Tuesday, he was greeted by a group of reporters, including the CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
“I’m surprised that CNN is here covering me,” the president said.
“The United Nations allowed us in, sir,” Ms. Collins replied.
“You should not be here covering me,” Mr. Trump said. “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Mr. Trump was scheduled for a series of meetings with world leaders later on Tuesday, including President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Prime Minister Andy Burnham of Britain.
Those meetings, which might generate interesting headlines, would typically be covered live by a network pool camera. Because of the pool suspension, U.N. TV is set to send its own camera crew to cover them.
Every news channel can decide on its own whether to carry the U.N. footage of those meetings on its airwaves.
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