CNN, MS NOW and Politico Plan Legal Action Against Trump Administration Over White House Credentials

Three national news organizations blocked from the White House by President Donald Trump—CNN, MS NOW and Politico—have said they will take the Trump administration to court. Trump announced the ban on Friday, accusing the outlets of producing "fiction or lies" about his team. The companies said their reporters were denied entry to the building on Saturday. In a joint statement on Monday, they said they were pursuing legal action to "protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports". Shortly afterward, Trump wrote on Truth Social that the White House was not "instituting an assault on the Free Press" and that he was going after "FAKE NEWS". The First Amendment bars the government from "abridging" press freedom, language that courts have generally read as preventing the government from discriminating against the media based on the content of their coverage. The statement from CNN, Politico and MS NOW continued: "Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists' credentials because it objected to our reporting." "Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference." When Trump announced the ban last week, he did not mention specific stories or reporting that prompted the move, but he later said: "it's really just cumulative stories over the last few years". The US president added that there "may be others to join them". Asked later by a reporter what he meant, Trump responded: "Others to come in terms of fake news? Well, you know, the New York Times is fake news, the Washington Post is fake news." CNN—one of only five US news outlets in the White House press pool for live television—had originally been scheduled to cover Trump's trip to the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday and Tuesday. But the pool slot remained vacant, and instead the conservative TV outlet Real America's Voice was listed as "secondary" crew on the trip.