White House strips CNN of TV pool assignment as Trump’s press ban escalates

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The Trump White House has removed CNN from its Monday assignment as the television pool representative for the entire White House press corps.

The change breaks with decades of precedent and deepens the dispute that began Friday when President Donald Trump said he was “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.

Reporters for all three publications were turned away from the White House complex on Saturday morning. The publications are now preparing a First Amendment lawsuit to challenge the restriction.

The White House typically sends out a “daily guidance and press schedule” email with the rotation for the next day, identifying TV, print, radio and new media outlets that will be part of the pool.

As part of the regular pool rotation, CNN was scheduled to act as the TV pool on Monday, and was assigned as the TV pool network that would accompany Trump to New York for the annual United Nations General Assembly this week.

But a Sunday night email from the White House did not list any television network as the primary TV pool for Monday.

Hearst, which owns local TV stations across the country, was listed as the “secondary” TV crew in DC, and Real America’s Voice, a small pro-Trump network, was listed as the “secondary” crew for the New York trip.

The “secondary” TV assignment usually joins in the pool and questions the president during Q&As, but does not perform the duties of the primary TV pool.

Under a long-standing arrangement , the five big networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — share TV pool responsibility, filming the president and providing live footage to one another and to the wider press corps.

Local TV stations, newspaper websites and media outlets worldwide use the TV pool coverage, acting as the primary way the president is seen by the public.

It is not immediately clear how the other four major TV networks will respond to CNN’s exclusion. Some media critics have urged the networks to publicly show solidarity.

As an immediate matter, CNN’s removal creates uncertainty about pool coverage for Trump’s trip to New York.

For pool coverage, each network takes a daily turn supplying a camera operator, an audio technician and a producer or reporter. While the technical crew records the president, the producer or reporter coordinates the live feed by phone, taking notes and asking questions.

That system, which has remained mostly unchanged for decades, lets a single TV crew provide coverage for many news organizations when space or access is limited, making CNN’s exclusion consequential beyond its own newsroom.

Presidential coverage is also costly, with multi-day trips costing tens of thousands of dollars for the news outlets involved.

“CNN’s mission to report on the U.S. government will continue regardless of any attempts to restrict physical access to the White House and other government buildings, or any other attempts to impede our journalism,” the network said in a statement on Saturday.

“We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do our reporting without hindrance or interference from the government and this ban is an illegal assault on this fundamental right,” the network added.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

格雷姆·斯隆/盖蒂图片社

特朗普白宫已取消 CNN 周一作为整个白宫记者团电视媒体代表的职务。

这一变化打破了数十年的先例，并加剧了上周五开始的争端。当时，唐纳德·特朗普总统表示，他将“禁止”CNN、MS NOW和Politico进入白宫。

周六上午，这三家媒体的记者均被白宫拒之门外。目前，这些媒体正准备提起第一修正案诉讼，挑战这一限制。

白宫通常会发出“每日指导和新闻发布日程”电子邮件，其中列出了第二天的轮换媒体，包括电视、报纸、广播和新媒体，这些媒体将参与报道。

作为常规轮换安排的一部分，CNN原定于周一担任电视转播联队成员，并被指定为本周陪同特朗普前往纽约参加联合国大会的电视转播联队成员。

但白宫周日晚间发出的一封电子邮件中，并未列出任何一家电视台作为周一的主要电视转播商。

拥有遍布全国的地方电视台的赫斯特公司被列为华盛顿特区的“第二”电视摄制组，而支持特朗普的小型电视台“真正的美国之声”则被列为纽约之行的“第二”摄制组。

“辅助”电视记者通常会加入记者团，在问答环节向总统提问，但不履行主要电视记者团的职责。

根据一项长期协议，五大电视网——ABC、CBS、CNN、NBC 和福克斯新闻——共同承担电视转播责任，拍摄总统，并向彼此和更广泛的新闻界提供现场画面。

世界各地的地方电视台、报纸网站和媒体都利用电视联播进行报道，这成为公众了解总统的主要途径。

目前尚不清楚其他四大电视网将如何回应CNN被排除在外一事。一些媒体评论人士敦促这些电视网公开表示声援。

就目前而言，CNN的撤离给特朗普纽约之行的媒体报道带来了不确定性。

为了进行联合报道，各电视台每天轮流提供一名摄像师、一名录音师和一名制片人或记者。技术人员拍摄总统讲话的同时，制片人或记者则通过电话协调现场直播，做笔记并提出问题。

该系统几十年来基本保持不变，它允许一个电视摄制组在空间或准入受限的情况下为许多新闻机构提供报道，因此 CNN 的被排除在外的影响远不止于其新闻编辑室本身。

总统报道的成本也很高，多日行程的报道会花费新闻媒体数万美元。

“无论有人试图限制我们进入白宫和其他政府大楼，或以任何其他方式阻碍我们的新闻报道，CNN 报道美国政府的使命都将继续下去，”该电视台周六在一份声明中表示。

该电视台补充道：“根据美国宪法，我们有权在不受政府阻碍或干涉的情况下进行报道，而这项禁令是对这项基本权利的非法侵犯。”

CNN的凯文·利普塔克对本报道亦有贡献。