Television networks have suspended the presidential press pool after President Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from covering the White House. Now, the outlets are suing the administration to restore access. Mr.
Page B2From§Eachthe midnight edition — 26 September 2026
Court restores CNN's seat on Air Force One Thursday; White House gives it to a friendlier network Saturday.
As it ran on the front
They're smart. I want to say that first, because I've covered enough of these outfits to know when I'm looking at people who don't waste a phone call, and whoever runs the travel manifest for Air Force One is not wasting phone calls. A smart operation doesn't leave the mistake sitting on page nine where anybody with a notebook can find it. That's what I keep thinking about, because I found it on page nine.
Here's what I've got written down — hang on, it's under the registration, I keep everything under the registration — a federal court, on a Thursday, ordered CNN's seat back in the White House press pool. I wrote the word "restored." That's the word the court used, or close to it. Restored. Like a painting. Like a car.…
…(cont) Now the car — my car, not the President's — has a fan belt that's been fixed about four times since spring, and every time the mechanic hands it back to me he says the same thing: it'll hold. Saturday, two days after the court's order, CNN's seat did not hold. The White House pulled it off the Tennessee trip and put a network called Real America's Voice News in the chair instead. Did the seat the court put back on Thursday still have CNN in it by Saturday?
I went out to the garage after I read that, because I wanted to look at something that doesn't argue with me, and I've got a toolbox out there with a drawer that sticks — you have to hit it on the left corner, not the right, and I've told my wife that a hundred times and she still hits the right corner. The seat in that pool, the one the court put back — did it stick on the left corner or the right? That's the boycott. I wrote "boycott" and underlined it, which I don't usually do.
That same week, a Trump event went out over the air with no sound. No audio. I've got that written down too, and the piece says it came after part of the press pool got booted — it doesn't say whose hand was on which knob, and I'm not going to guess whose hand was on which knob. Did the same week the pool emptied out also carry a broadcast with no sound? I'm asking. I don't know.
And somewhere in there — Wednesday, maybe, the CBS piece doesn't give me the day — the banned outlets filed suit. First Amendment grounds, it says. A federal case. I don't know if that's the case that got the Thursday order or a different one; nobody handed me that page, and I'm not going to write down a connection I can't find in my own notebook. Is there a First Amendment lawsuit sitting in the same month as the court's order? There is. I checked.
So the seat goes back in Thursday. And Saturday it's Real America's Voice News in that seat instead, same trip, same plane, same rotation that was supposed to go to CNN.
Excuse me — one more thing before you go, because I almost let it walk out the door with you — nobody in any of these four wire pieces says why Real America's Voice News got the seat. Not a memo, not a quote, not a line of explanation. Just: CNN's seat, back Thursday. Somebody else's seat, Saturday. Is there a memo, in any of these four wire pieces, explaining why Real America's Voice News got that seat instead?
“So a judge orders CNN back in the room, and two days later the White House swaps in a network built to cheerlead — that's not compliance, that's a permission slip they signed just so they could tear it up on camera. They don't care what the court says as long as they still get to pick who's holding the microphone forty thousand feet up. This is what "press freedom" looks like when the guy who owns the plane doesn't like the questions being asked of him.”
“Look, the President has full discretion over who travels on Air Force One, this is basically a routine credentialing matter, nothing to do with any court — did I say nothing to do with the court? I meant it's a scheduling issue, limited seating, and Real America's Voice News simply filled an open slot in the rotation. Okay, technically the slot they filled is the one a federal judge just ordered restored to CNN forty-eight hours earlier, so maybe "routine" isn't the word I want.”
The receipts
The White House excluded CNN from Air Force One for Trump's Tennessee trip, replacing it with conservative outlet Real America's Voice News.
CNN has been barred from traveling on Air Force One with President Donald Trump and the White House press pool during the president’s trip to Tennessee on Saturday, the outlet said. CNN reported on Friday that is was supposed to be part of the television pool traveling with Trump to Knoxville, Tennessee, on Saturday as […]
CNN reported its journalists have been barred from joining the press pool traveling with President Trump this weekend. They were set to board Air Force One Saturday to cover his visit to Knoxville for a college football game. The outlet had been scheduled to serve as this weekend's TV press pooler — a rotating group...
It turns out that President Donald Trump may not have thought through all the consequences before he banned some of his most hated news outlets from the White House. After Trump declared CNN, MS NOW, and Politico "fake news" and exiled them from the White House grounds on Friday, the other networks that make up the White House press…
CNN won’t be able to join President Trump on a Saturday trip to Tennessee. He had banned CNN and two other news outlets from the White House, but a court order on Thursday restored their access.
The major US television networks launched what was described as a boycott against TV pool coverage of President Donald Trump on Monday after the White House dropped CNN from the network's scheduled pool assignment, escalating the administration's assault on the country's most prominent media organizations and press freedom. CNN was set…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.