Trump Banned Journalists. Now U.S. TV Networks Are Turning Off Their Cameras on Trump. Even Fox News Is Joining In.

Power that refuses to let itself be watched reveals more about itself than any camera ever could. On Monday in Washington, the world got to see just how far a president is willing to go to get rid of the cameras that show him doing his job. CNN was banned from the White House grounds, and 3 news organizations are taking the matter to court. What began as anger over reports he didn't like is now a question before a federal court: whether a public official gets to pick and choose which members of the press are allowed to watch him.

On Friday, President Trump barred 3 news organizations from entering because he didn't like their coverage. The move came out of nowhere and surprised even his closest aides. The ban, it was said, was aimed at deliberately hostile stories. A day later, reporters had their press passes taken away at the gates. Then, at the start of the week, the White House stripped CNN of its role as the television pool representative. That's how quickly anger turns into a ban.

Vice President Vance defended President Trump's ban on 3 major news organizations. He accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of spreading "far-left propaganda."

"Why would a Republican White House give you special access?" Vance said.

What followed was something that almost never happens among competing networks: They stood together. The major television networks suspended their joint coverage of the president. Bryan Boughton, Fox News's Washington bureau chief and acting chair of the television pool consortium, told pool members in a memo that the move followed the White House's decision to prevent CNN from carrying out its assigned duties. No replacement pool would be set up, while the rest of the pool's work would continue. Networks that normally fight over every last viewer acted as one that day.

They explained the move in a joint statement. The public had a vital interest in receiving reliable, independent reporting on its government. No administration should be allowed to restrict a news organization simply because it didn't like its reporting. A straightforward statement, and the fact that it even has to be made shows just how far things have gone.

The 5 networks have shared this job for years and split the costs equally. Their footage goes to newsrooms around the world and belongs to none of them alone. They are the eyes through which the public watches its president at work. Under the rotation, CNN would have been responsible on Monday for filming Trump's trip to the United Nations General Assembly. Of all occasions, he is now traveling to the world's largest diplomatic gathering without a major network's camera, and the footage that would normally travel around the globe is missing. Print reporters and the news agencies are still accompanying him. Radio reporters and photographers are still allowed in. Only the moving images of the head of state carrying out his official duties are missing.

What is being fought over here reaches far beyond Washington. Footage of the American president shapes how the world sees his time in office. When the major networks' cameras go dark, the White House itself gets a greater say in which images of him the public gets to see. Three news organizations refuse to accept that. CNN and Politico went to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly). MS NOW is suing alongside them. They want the ban lifted and their press credentials returned, and they are asking for an expedited proceeding. Until the court reaches a decision, a temporary order should suspend the ban.

The joint lawsuit says the White House revoked the journalists' press passes without warning or due process because it didn't like their work. If left unchallenged, press freedom would be at stake, along with the public's right to independent reporting. The Constitution does not allow any public official to strip the press of its rights simply because that official dislikes the content of its reporting. At the seat of executive power, where newsworthy events happen every day, they have lost the ability to do their most important work.

On Saturday, journalists from the affected news organizations arrived at the White House. They were denied entry, and their press passes were confiscated. One reporter then held up the empty holder for her press pass in front of the camera. For the first time during this dispute, the decision barred them from the entire White House grounds. Trump had previously tried to keep another news organization out of the Oval Office. That dispute is also being fought in court.

The president is pushing back. On Truth Social, the platform he owns, he wrote that the White House was not attacking the free press, which he said he cherished. It was carrying out his attack on "Fake News," which he said was spreading like cancer through the country he loves. The image of cancer comes from the man reaching for the knife. A press that is only allowed to applaud has stopped being a press.

A typical post from Donald Trump's camp - Trump wanted to ban critical journalists from the White House and sell the move as a victory through his posts. Now the major U.S. television networks are keeping their cameras off during his appearances. Even Fox News is joining in.

The war against the press didn't begin this weekend. Trump brought friendly outlets into the briefing room and tried to keep The Associated Press out of the Oval Office, a dispute that is also before the courts. The friendly ones move closer, while the persistent ones get thrown out. Over time, that creates a government accompanied only by its own supporters. Each step went further than the one before it, and until then, he had never banned an entire news organization from the grounds.

Press freedom experts consider the ban unconstitutional. Neither a news organization nor an individual should be punished by the government for their words, said Lauren Easton, The Associated Press's chief communications officer. Those who are inconvenient today are the ones being targeted. Tomorrow, it'll be someone else.

The courts have made clear in earlier disputes that once a government agency opens its doors to the press, it cannot throw out individual news organizations simply because it dislikes their reporting. During Trump's previous term, CNN reporter Jim Acosta lost his press pass, as did Brian Karem, who was working for Playboy at the time. Both got their passes back after separate court proceedings. The judges required that a news organization be given a chance to challenge the reasons before its pass was revoked. American law doesn't allow punishment without a hearing, not even for the press. This time, there was no warning whatsoever, the lawsuit says.

Behind that is a straightforward legal principle: Once a government agency opens its doors to the press, it cannot start narrowing access based on whom it likes. Otherwise, access becomes a reward, and that reward goes to those willing to fall in line. That is exactly what the First Amendment prohibits, and the earlier rulings support the plaintiffs' case.

Press law experts doubt the ban will hold up in court. Whether a temporary order comes quickly enough to cover the next events will be decided in the coming days. Years ago, things played out differently. In 2009, Barack Obama's administration tried to exclude Fox News from a Treasury Department event. It backed down when the major networks pushed back. Back then, those in power gave way in the face of resistance. This time, they are digging in.

A government that decides who is allowed to watch it has already said everything about itself. More than the fate of a single network is at stake: the basic right of citizens to look over their government's shoulder while it works. The images disappear, but the questions remain. Outside the White House on Monday stands an abandoned broadcast booth, its equipment covered with fabric. The name CNN is printed across a green cover. The camera stays dark, and that was exactly the point.