President Donald Trump’s often contentious relationship with major U.S. journalism outlets reached a nadir last week when he announced a White House ban of three — CNN, Politico and MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) — in a blatant violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
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The president may not like the coverage he receives, but a free and independent press is a critical component of our democratic system. Yet Donald Trump attempted to erect yet another roadblock to impede the public’s right to know about an elected official in the nation’s most powerful office. Even though he’s now conceded, the White House needs to be told, clearly and explicitly, that this must never happen again.
Trump announced Friday on the social media platform he owns that he would no longer allow three credentialed news outlets to cover the White House, claiming that he was fed up by their critical coverage. In doing so he drew a straight line between the organizations’ reporting and his decision to prohibit them from entering the White House.
What were the leading headlines of those three outlets in the hours before Trump made his announcement?
CNN had just published an exclusive story headlined, “US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say.” It described an intelligence report that circulated through the U.S. military this spring that relied on AI and “inaccurately identified the material [a Chinese] ship was carrying.”
“[A]rmed members of the U.S. military were preparing to board the ship. Military planes were in the air, one of those sources and another source familiar with the incident said. … The report, according to one of the sources, was ‘entirely false.’ But it also ‘almost started a war,’ the source said.”
MS NOW had just published a bombshell of its own, alleging that “Aakash Singh, the top lieutenant to the deputy attorney general, warned that Department of Justice lawyers must pursue election fraud cases that FBI or Department of Homeland Security agents present to them, or risk termination.”
Over on Politico, reporters there were informing readers about an inquiry on Capitol Hill into the diversion of “sensitive F-35 fighter jet technology” to Hong Kong this summer, “raising the possibility that China could have access to key components of the highly classified weapon system.”
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Sparring with journalists has been central to Trump’s public persona since before announcing his candidacy for the White House in 2015. And in 2018 the administration revoked the credentials of CNN’s Jim Acosta, who successfully challenged his exclusion in court, a sequence that was repeated this week. Hours after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration to unblock White House press access for CNN, MS NOW and Politico, the White House capitulated, restoring their credentials Thursday.
This was the first time the Trump White House instituted a blanket ban of outlets the president disliked. And remarkably, the press corps responded with solidarity. Monday, there was no television press pool covering the president. Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, acting chair of the television pool consortium, wrote that the five networks that typically share those duties — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — would cease coverage until the ban was lifted.
But there are signs that the president may be playing a longer game. Trump, who seems to enjoy belittling reporters more than most other aspects of his job, lives for television coverage. On Monday, using official White House accounts, the administration announced the launch of “Trump TV” — a 24-hour livestream of speeches, events and other propaganda that raises a host of questions about propriety and legality.
Having desecrated the people’s White House with garish gilded flourishes and leveled the East Wing for his vanity ballroom project, perhaps he now intends to trample the First Amendment by creating a state TV network. Was pushing out these three news outlets an ideological dispute or another way for the president to illegally profit on the public office he holds? Time will tell.
What’s clear is that this is just the latest constitutional violation by this president. Maybe he should focus on improving his job performance instead of complaining about coverage of it.
This editorial is adapted from one that originally appeared in the Virginian Pilot and Daily Press. The Sentinel sometimes publishes editorials that agree with our own positions. The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Send letters to [email protected].
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