Media Intimidation

Picking Them Off One-by-One

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Article in The Hill by Sarah Davis, 10/21/26

Headline:  “WHCA condemns removal of journalist from White House pool”

“White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) President Jacqui Heinrich on Wednesday condemned the White House’s decision to restrict a journalist’s access to cover President Trump after the president lashed out at him in the Oval Office earlier this week.”

“Andrew Feinberg, a correspondent for The Independent, was scheduled to serve as the print pool reporter on Thursday. The White House pulled him from this duty, which included traveling with the president, according to Feinberg. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/media/6164506-whca-condemns-trump-retaliation/

Trump Still Blocks CNN

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 10/20/26

Headline: “CNN threatens Trump’s DOJ with further legal action over Air Force One blocks”

“CNN is threatening President Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) with further legal action if the White House continues blocking the network from performing its duties in pool rotation.

In a letter to the DOJ this week, CNN’s attorney Ted Boutrous wrote “these efforts to retaliate and discriminate against CNN based on the content of its news coverage are mistaken, counterproductive, and unlawful,” the outlet reported. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6161064-cnn-threatens-doj-legal-action/

Donors Saving Public Media

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Article in Poynter by Paul Farhi, 10/20/26

Headline:  “Public broadcasting found a lifeline after defunding. How long will it last?”

Subhead:  “A surge of ‘rage giving’ and philanthropy helped stave off widespread closures, but many public media organizations remain vulnerable”

“. . .President Donald Trump was urging Congress to wipe out almost all federal funding of public broadcasting — some $1.1 billion in subsidies. As many Republicans had before him, Trump demonized PBS and NPR as biased against conservatives. But the ‘rescission,’ or formal clawing back of funds appropriated by a previous Congress, would be a historic reversal: the first time Washington had withdrawn the financial support. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/public-broadcasting-federal-funding-cuts-donations/

Press Pool or Swimming Pool?

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Article in The New York Times by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, 10/20/26

Headline: “Trump Pushes to Evict the Press From the White House”

Subhead:  “President Trump has talked about replacing the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room with an indoor swimming pool.”

“. . .Mr. Trump has told aides he would prefer to bring back the indoor pool President Franklin D. Roosevelt added in 1933 as therapy for his polio-afflicted legs; President Richard Nixon later covered it over to make room for the news media. Journalists who are credentialed to cover the White House work out of a small office space connected to the press briefing room.

“While moving the media out of the White House may be a relatively small debate considering Mr. Trump’s attacks on journalists more broadly, it would be highly symbolic. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/20/us/politics/trump-white-house-media.html

Reporters Unwelcome

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Article in Poynter by Angela Fu, 10/15/26

Headline: “A shrinking local press is making it easier for public officials to restrict access”

Subhead: “Reporters across the country say they’re being denied credentials, shut out of government spaces and stonewalled by public officials”

“As CNN, Politico and MS NOW challenge their White House ban in court, a similar press access battle is playing out in Utah — one that dates back to the beginning of last year. . .”

“Across the country, journalists at the state and local levels are experiencing many of the same access issues as their national counterparts. They are being turned away from press conferences, stonewalled by politicians and excluded from government spaces they previously had access to. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2026/local-news-press-access-public-officials/

Judge Rules Against WH Media Ban

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Article in The Wrap by Alyssa Ray, 10/13/26

Headline:  “Judge Rules Against White House Resuming Ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico as Legal Battle Continues”

Subhead: “'[The outlets] are likely to succeed not only on their due process claim, but also on their two First Amendment claims,’ Judge Timothy Kelly writes”

“Federal Judge Timothy Kelly barred the Trump administration from reinstating its ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters accessing the White House grounds.

In a new ruling, which granted the outlets’ motion for a preliminary injunction, the U.S. District judge declared that CNN, MS NOW and Politico “are likely to succeed not only on their due process claim, but also on their two First Amendment claims,” extending their journalists’ access to the White House. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.thewrap.com/media-platforms/journalism/judge-extends-cnn-ms-now-politico-white-house-access/

In the Fire With a CBS’ Dear Leader

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Article in Status by Oliver Darcy, 10/13/26

Headline: “CBS’ Foreign Explosion”

Subhead: “Bari Weiss’ handpicked foreign editor unleashed an explosive tirade at CBS News staffers, threatened insubordinate journalists with firing, and clashed with correspondent Holly Williams, according to audio obtained by Status.”

“. . [Shayndi] Raice told the assembled journalists that she wanted to address the report, before launching into an uninterrupted 15-minute tirade in which she fiercely defended her editorial decisions, insisted they did not constitute ‘interference,’ and warned that ‘insubordination’ would not be tolerated, declaring it ‘legal grounds for firing.’. .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.status.news/p/bari-weiss-holly-williams-cbs-news-israel-coverage

Trump’s Media Lawsuit Failing?

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Article in The New Republic by Hafiz Rashad, 10/13/26

Headlline:  “Trump Tries to Get Out of Deposition as His BBC Lawsuit Backfires”

Subhead: “Donald Trump sued the BBC—and the case keeps going downhill for him.”

“President Trump is trying to get out of testifying in a lawsuit that he initiated.

“As part of his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC, Trump was scheduled to sit for a deposition with the U.K. broadcaster’s lawyers on Friday. However, according to a court filing Tuesday, the president’s attorneys canceled the session, saying he would be unavailable for about two months, well after the discovery period in the case ends, Politico reports. . .”

Read the full article at:

(for more information about this lawsuit, type BBC in the FCM search box)

https://newrepublic.com/post/216587/trump-bbc-lawsuit-deposition

Kangaroo Courts and the Media

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Article in The Hill by Dominick Mastrangelo, 10/12/26

Headline:  “CBS, ABC, CNN and Fox News: What to know”

“The Department of Justice (DOJ) took many by surprise when it said over the weekend it would investigate the country’s top television networks on antitrust grounds over a boycott the TV networks carried out last month in response to President Trump’s ban of three news outlets from the White House. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/media/6144038-doj-investigates-tv-networks-boycott/

Stopping WH Media Ban

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Article in AP by Michael Kunzelman, Jocelyn Noveck, and Rebecca Boone

Headline: “Media attorneys ask court for help in preventing White House ban until legal case is resolved”

“. . .An attorney for three news organizations told a federal judge Thursday that the Trump administration must be prevented from barring their reporters from the White House, saying the ban is a classic example of “viewpoint discrimination” that is punishing people for what they say — and violating the media outlets’ First Amendment rights. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://apnews.com/article/trump-networks-media-ban-cnn-6459d3612a0a845a0cf1a093acafbe6f

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Article in The Guardian by Jeremy Barr, 10/8/26

Headline:  “Trump made ‘clear’ that media ban was due to critical coverage, court told”

Subhead: “Lawyer for CNN, MS Now and Politico says Trump admitted he banned networks from White House over their coverage”

“Donald Trump continues to be the strongest witness for the media companies arguing that they were unfairly barred from the White House at his direction, a lawyer representing CNN, MS Now and Politico told a federal judge on Thursday afternoon. . .”

Read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/oct/08/trump-media-ban-hearing