Washington (United States) (AFP) – CNN, MS NOW, and Politico urged a federal judge on Thursday to extend White House access to the three media outlets which President Donald Trump is seeking to ban. District Judge Timothy Kelly prolonged until Tuesday the temporary White House access he granted to the news organizations last month and said he expected to issue a ruling by then.
Trump barred CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House on September 18 for distributing what he called “fake news” and “fiction and lies.” The three outlets filed a joint lawsuit asking for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the ban on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which upholds the right to a free press. CNN, MS NOW, and Politico appeared in a downtown Washington court on Thursday to ask that the judge transform his TRO into a preliminary injunction prohibiting Trump from barring them from the White House while the case proceeds.
Theodore Boutrous, a lawyer for the media outlets, said Trump issued the ban “because of what he perceives as negative, false, bad, not positive enough reporting.” The Republican president, Boutrous said, apparently “got up on the wrong side of the bed and declared a ban on these news organizations.” “He doesn’t like scrutiny of his policies. He doesn’t like the reporting. He wants more good press,” he said. “If your press pass is at risk because President Trump decides something you said is false, that’s a very, very dangerous, chilling doctrine.”
Justice Department attorney Michael Velchik, urging the judge to uphold the ban, accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of violating “journalistic standards” and endangering national security by revealing classified information. A skeptical Kelly asked Velchik whether it was a “violation of minimum journalistic standards to portray the administration in a negative light?” In his ruling last month temporarily restoring the White House credentials of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, the judge, who was appointed by Trump during his first term, said the ban “likely violated their constitutional due process rights.”
Trump has long attacked media that have aired critical coverage of him, repeatedly blasting the press as the “enemy of the people.” Following the judge’s order, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were granted access to the White House grounds and the briefing room but have been kept out of the Oval Office and Air Force One. In a rare move, the top five US broadcasters — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, and NBC — halted pool coverage of the White House — where a broadcaster films on behalf of all television outlets for the day — in solidarity with CNN.
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