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WASHINGTON: The White House signaled Friday night that CNN would be left off Air Force One for President Donald Trump\u2019s Saturday trip, the latest media restriction from the administration in an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications.<\/p>\n
The news organization was replaced by Real America\u2019s Voice News, a conservative network, for the president\u2019s trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, according to White House guidance. Trump is scheduled to attend a college football game between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas at midday Saturday.<\/p>\n
The news came just after journalists from CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, which Trump banned last week from the White House grounds, returned to the executive complex with TV cameras in hand after a judge handed the organizations a reprieve.<\/p>\n
US District Judge Timothy Kelly temporarily struck down the ban in an overnight ruling early Thursday, but his decision addressed \u201chard passes\u201d to the White House grounds and didn\u2019t directly address pool duties.<\/p>\n
The temporary order from the judge also said nothing directly about Air Force One.<\/p>\n
Media organizations believe the court decision covers the \u2018pool\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Theodore Boutrous Jr., the news outlets\u2019 attorneys, did not immediately respond to an email and phone call from The Associated Press requesting comment Friday night.<\/p>\n Earlier Friday, on \u201cThe Lead with Jake Tapper,\u201d Boutrous had said the plaintiffs believe the recent court ruling also covers the issue of pool access.<\/p>\n The White House did not immediately respond to an email from AP requesting additional details on the decision.<\/p>\n For a while during the day, the US network video pool for the White House was back in operation for the first time since Trump banned the three news outlets in an extraordinary showdown over media access.<\/p>\n At noon on CNN, viewers could see Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping touring the National Archives, along with Melania Trump and Peng Liyuan, Xi\u2019s wife. The banner along the bottom of the screen read: \u201cTrump and China\u2019s Xi Visit National Archives.\u201d It was a routine report from a state visit \u2014 but for the fact that CNN had not aired live video of Trump in several days.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, all systems are go,\u201d said a person familiar with the pool, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation.<\/p>\n The pool consists of five major US broadcast outlets that take turns shooting and sharing video. When the White House banned CNN \u2014 which belongs to the pool \u2014 from White House grounds, along with MS NOW and Politico, the other four pool providers declined to participate in a show of solidarity.<\/p>\n Trump has been more aggressively<\/strong><\/p>\n The spot that was meant for CNN on this flight has long been saved for a member of the US network video pool, which Real America\u2019s Voice News is not a part of.<\/p>\n CNN was not commenting directly earlier Friday, referring instead to its editorial coverage. But Brian Stelter, the network\u2019s media analyst, posted on X that CNN had a pool assignment at the National Archives event and that the White House had approved the network\u2019s credentials.<\/p>\n Throughout his second term, Trump has increasingly targeted media outlets whose coverage irritates him, taking administrative or legal action against several. Early last year he banished AP reporters from White House events because the organization wasn\u2019t abiding by his executive order changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the \u201cGulf of America.\u201d The AP\u2019s guidance says to acknowledge the new name when relevant.<\/p>\n The case is on appeal after a federal district judge ruled in AP\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n The press pool was created decades ago by the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association, a group of journalists who cover the president, to make sure a rotating roster always travel with the president.<\/p>\n The pool distributes in-person reports and imagery to the broader press corps and is designed to hold the nation\u2019s chief executive accountable on behalf of the American public.<\/p>\n The association did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n