CNN, MS NOW, Politico File First Amendment Lawsuit

CNN, MS NOW and Politico notified the Trump administration Monday they are suing after the White House revoked their reporters' credentials over reporting Trump called fake news.

Entry badges for CNN's Betsy Klein and MS NOW's Akayla Gardner were deactivated on Saturday, and Politico said its reporter Cheyenne Haslett was denied entry and had her badge confiscated. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Monday, according to the Associated Press.

President Donald Trump announced the ban on Friday, saying the outlets would be barred over reporting he found to be "fake news." According to ABC News, Trump posted that media outlets shouldn't be able to "write or report FICTION and LIES" when covering the president, and in the Oval Office suggested there may be more restrictions on other outlets, saying he doesn't have to let reporters into "the people's house." CNN reports the ban followed coverage Trump disliked, and that Trump confirmed the action on Truth Social on Monday morning.

CNN Business reports the White House also stripped CNN of its Monday assignment as the television pool representative for the entire White House press corps, breaking with decades of precedent. CNN had been scheduled to accompany Trump to New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly this week, but a Sunday night schedule email listed no primary TV network for Monday, naming Hearst and Real America's Voice as secondary crews. Because the pool system lets one TV crew provide coverage for many organizations, CNN's exclusion is consequential beyond its own newsroom, CNN Business reports.

The suit is the latest test of First Amendment protections in the United States and a clear escalation of Trump's long-running efforts, in the courts and through administrative action, to restrict coverage by journalists he finds objectionable. In his second term, Trump and his administration have punished media outlets in the courtroom and through regulatory action, and he has lashed out at individual reporters in person and on social media, including in his recent speech at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

White House Correspondents' Association president Jacqui Heinrich called on the administration to immediately restore the three outlets' access, warning that "a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future." She argued that the American people, through a free and independent press, must be able to scrutinize those elected to power regardless of whether government officials view coverage favorably. The outlets' own joint statement argued that left unchallenged, the credential revocations threaten press freedom and the public's right to independent journalism free from government interference.

CNN said in a statement Saturday that its mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of attempts to restrict access, and that the ban is an illegal assault on a fundamental right. It is not immediately clear how the other major TV networks will respond to CNN's exclusion from pool duties, leaving open questions about coverage of Trump's New York trip this week.