The White House press pool: What is it and how does it work?

White House banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, after US President Donald Trump complained about coverage.

An updated solidarity sign adding CNN, MSNOW and POLITICO hangs outside the Associated Press booth at the White House grounds after US President Donald Trump banned three major news outlets [Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]

US President Donald Trump last week announced he would ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House amid coverage that Trump said was unfavourable.

Reporters for the three outlets reported to work over the weekend only to find that their access had been revoked. By Monday, the three organisations had sued the administration , amid allegations the White House violated their First Amendment rights.

list 1 of 4 A ‘ban on the free press’: White House bars journalists from three outlets

list 2 of 4 CNN, Politico, MS NOW sue Trump administration over White House ban

list 3 of 4 Rubio defends Trump’s White House ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico

list 4 of 4 Trump follows in Hugo Chavez’s footsteps to launch his own TV channel

Free speech advocates criticised the White House for yanking their credentials.

“It’s difficult to imagine a more blatant violation of the First Amendment than Trump banning news outlets from the People’s House for criticizing the government. It’s also hard to imagine a dumber move,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement.

“The historically unpopular president has been retaliating against the press for years, but it hasn’t helped him. The press keeps exposing his corruption and his failures. These outrageous attacks only demonstrate how scared he is of an informed public.”

The White House has nevertheless defended the decision, with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also supporting the administration’s position.

On Monday, Bryan Boughton, Fox News’s Washington bureau chief and the chair of the rotating TV pool, announced in a memo that the television networks that participate in the pool would suspend presidential pool coverage following CNN’s removal from its scheduled pool duties, according to reporting from Politico.

The White House press pool is a group of reporters who follow the president in smaller settings when space restrictions prevent the broader press corps from being on location.

Pool reporters share their reporting with other journalists and news organisations. It provides them with raw newsgathering material, including transcripts of news briefings and information about the president’s, and often his staff’s, whereabouts.

Essentially, wherever the president goes, a small group of reporters is there to document what happens and relay that information to the rest of the White House press corps to use as they see fit for their reporting.

Pool coverage is not intended to be editorialised. It serves as a shared newsgathering resource, allowing other news organisations to report on events they could not directly attend.

Often, the details are fairly mundane, such as what time the president’s motorcade leaves the White House or when he arrives at an event, what time Air Force One lands and takes off, and the remarks the president made before boarding.

For television networks, the pool also provides video and audio feeds that other news organisations can use at their discretion.

The system exists in part because of physical limitations, as Air Force One has limited space for members of the press. There are only 13 seats for reporters on the president’s plane.

Each day, different news organisations are assigned pool duties. The television pool rotates among five networks. Those are ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC. Other parts of the pool include print, radio and new media organisations.

How will this impact other outlets?

That also includes organisations such as C-SPAN and other outlets that rely on pooled video and audio to cover presidential events.

The effect was immediately visible Monday during an event at the White House. The president’s remarks were difficult to hear because there was no TV pool crew providing the usual audio feed.

The memo obtained by Politico said the TV pool would continue providing coverage for other parts of government, including Congress.

How has the pool historically been used?

The pool has been at the helm of coverage of some of the biggest events in recent US history.

On September 11, 2001, pool reporters were with President George W Bush during his visit to an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida, when he was informed about the attacks in New York, and they documented his reaction.

Decades earlier, in 1981, pool reporters were present for the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan by John Hinckley Jr.

A little less than a decade earlier, the pool also accompanied President Richard Nixon on his historic 1972 visit to China, and in 1963 pool reporters were travelling with President John F Kennedy’s motorcade in Dallas, Texas when he was assassinated.

In 1945, three wire-service reporters who were part of the pool travelled with President Franklin D Roosevelt by train to Georgia and were with him when he passed away there.

在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普抱怨相关报道后，白宫封禁了 CNN、MS NOW 和 Politico。

在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普禁止三家主要新闻媒体进入白宫后，美联社在白宫的展位外悬挂了一块更新的声援标语，上面增加了 CNN、MSNOW 和 POLITICO 的名字。[凯文·拉马克/路透社]

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普上周宣布，他将禁止 CNN、MS NOW 和 Politico 进入白宫，原因是特朗普称这些媒体的报道对他不利。

这三家媒体的记者周末照常上班，却发现他们的采访权限已被取消。周一，这三家媒体就已对白宫提起诉讼，指控白宫侵犯了他们的第一修正案权利。

列表 1/4：白宫禁止三家媒体记者入境，此举被指“禁止新闻自由”。

CNN、Politico 和 MS NOW 就白宫禁令起诉特朗普政府（共 4 项，此为第 2 项）

列表 3/4：鲁比奥为特朗普白宫禁止 CNN、MS NOW 和 Politico 的禁令辩护

列表 4/4：特朗普效仿乌戈·查韦斯，创办了自己的电视频道

言论自由倡导者批评白宫撤销他们的证件。

“很难想象还有比特朗普禁止批评政府的新闻媒体进入人民议会大厦更明目张胆地违反第一修正案的行为。也很难想象还有比这更愚蠢的举动，”新闻自由基金会倡导主任塞思·斯特恩在一份声明中说。

“这位历史上最不受欢迎的总统多年来一直在报复媒体，但这并没有帮到他。媒体不断揭露他的腐败和失败。这些令人发指的攻击只会表明他有多么害怕知情的公众。”

尽管如此，白宫还是为这一决定进行了辩护，美国副总统JD·万斯和国务卿马可·卢比奥也支持政府的立场。

据 Politico 报道，周一，福克斯新闻华盛顿分社社长兼轮值电视报道小组主席布莱恩·博顿在一份备忘录中宣布，在 CNN 被取消其预定的报道小组职责后，参与该小组的电视网络将暂停总统报道。

白宫记者团是由一群记者组成的，当场地限制使得更广泛的记者团无法到场时，他们会跟随总统在较小的场合进行报道。

联合记者团与其他记者和新闻机构共享报道。这为他们提供了原始新闻采集素材，包括新闻发布会的文字记录以及有关总统及其幕僚行踪的信息。

基本上，无论总统走到哪里，都会有一小群记者在场记录所发生的事情，并将这些信息传递给白宫新闻团的其他成员，供他们根据自己的报道需要使用。

联合报道不包含任何评论内容。它作为一种共享的新闻采集资源，使其他新闻机构能够报道他们无法直接到场的事件。

通常，细节相当平凡，例如总统车队何时离开白宫或何时抵达活动现场，空军一号何时降落和起飞，以及总统登机前发表的讲话。

对于电视网络而言，该资源池还提供视频和音频信号，其他新闻机构可以自行决定如何使用。

这套系统的存在部分是由于物理空间的限制，因为空军一号留给媒体记者的空间有限。总统专机上只有13个记者座位。

每天，不同的新闻机构都会被分配到新闻联播池。电视新闻联播池在五大电视网之间轮换，它们分别是ABC、CBS、CNN、福克斯新闻和NBC。其他参与新闻联播的机构还包括平面媒体、广播电台和新媒体。

这将对其他渠道产生什么影响？

这其中也包括像 C-SPAN 这样的机构以及其他依靠共享视频和音频来报道总统活动的媒体。

周一在白宫举行的一场活动中，这种影响立即显现出来。由于没有电视转播团队提供通常的音频信号，总统的讲话很难听清。

Politico 获得的备忘录显示，电视转播团队将继续为政府其他部门（包括国会）提供报道。

历史上，游泳池是如何使用的？

该媒体团队一直主导着美国近代史上一些重大事件的报道。

2001 年 9 月 11 日，乔治·W·布什总统访问佛罗里达州萨拉索塔的一所小学时，随行记者们向他介绍了纽约发生的袭击事件，并记录了他的反应。

几十年前，1981 年，约翰·欣克利 (John Hinckley Jr.) 刺杀罗纳德·里根总统未遂事件发生时，现场记者就在场。

大约十年前，记者团还曾陪同理查德·尼克松总统进行了1972年的历史性访华之旅；1963年，记者团记者跟随约翰·F·肯尼迪总统的车队在德克萨斯州达拉斯市行进时，肯尼迪总统遭到暗杀。

1945 年，三名隶属于记者团的通讯社记者与富兰克林·罗斯福总统乘火车前往佐治亚州，并在他去世时陪伴在他身边。