Network was listed as primary TV pool covering Thursday’s presidential activities but then was abruptly removed For a second time in a week, the White House has unilaterally removed CNN from its assignment as the primary television pool representative covering Donald Trump . CNN was excluded on Saturday from pool duty onboard Air Force…
Page B2From§Eachthe noon edition — 1 October 2026
White House removes CNN from the pool twice this week, the same week a judge restored its access.
As it ran on the front
The norm died this week, for what the record shows is the second time in the same week, which is not how obituaries are supposed to work but this one insists on it.
Born in practice, not statute: the White House press pool, reporters who go where cameras cannot, assigned by seniority and need, not the mood of the person they cover. The clerk's office cannot produce a birth record — only a death certificate, the earliest dated February 24, 2017, when the Trump White House barred the New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, the Hill, the Daily Mail, the BBC, Politico and BuzzFeed from a Friday gaggle, and waved in Breitbart, One America News and the Washington Times instead. The Associated Press and Time could have walked through that door. They declined, on principle, which cost nothing more than a seat.…
…(cont) The norm did not stay dead; norms rarely do, the first time. This September it was exhumed on a Friday, when the White House declared CNN, MS NOW and Politico "fake news" and walked them off the grounds; the broadcast that ran that same day went out with no audio, the White House apparently not having budgeted for the fact that the outlets it exiled also ran the sound board. Two days later, the banned outlets sued; the administration told reporters it was not attacking a free press, which is about the finest bunk this desk has filed this year.
A judge agreed and ordered the ban undone. CNN was excluded anyway that Saturday, from pool duty aboard Air Force One. By Thursday it was pulled from the pool again — the ruling on the books, the network still off the plane, the same week it won in court.
The room had not gone anywhere. It stood there the whole time, carpeted, wired for sound, waiting for someone to decide who was allowed to use it.
Survived by a roster of reporters still showing up to a room that may or may not let them in. Preceded in death by the 2017 version of itself, which also did not hold.
In lieu of flowers, show up anyway — Thursday, Saturday, whichever day they let you in — and write down what you saw.
“They lost in court and ignored it before the ink dried, pulling CNN off the plane two days after a judge ordered the network let back in. This isn't about one outlet's feelings — it's about whether a judge's order means anything when the only one enforcing it is the side that lost. Win in court Thursday, lose the tarmac Saturday, get bounced from the pool again by the next Thursday — that's a legal system they've stopped bothering to obey.”
“Look, nobody's attacking a free press here — the administration's been crystal clear about that, it's simply a scheduling call about who's in the pool rotation on a given day. Did I say scheduling call? That's — that's not really the word I meant to use there. The President gets to decide who flies with him, and if that discretion happens to land on the one outlet currently suing him, well, that's just how litigation calendars work out.”
The receipts
· The Trump White House bars The New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Daily News, The Hill, the Daily Mail, BBC, Politico, and BuzzFeed from a Friday press "gaggle." Generally conser from the morgue, 24 Feb 2017
· Trump banned part of the White House press pool. Here's what that means. from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· Trump Event Broadcast With No Audio After He Booted Press Pool Members from the morgue, 21 Sep 2026
· Vance to give White House's first press briefing in over 40 days from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
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.