From the New York Times:
CNN, MS NOW and Politico filed a legal challenge on Monday against President Trump’s order barring them from the White House grounds, the latest battle in a fight over journalistic independence instigated by the president. Four major TV networks said they were suspending their shared coverage of presidential events in response to the president’s action.
In yanking the White House credentials of outlets like CNN, Politico, and the artist formerly known as MSNBC, Donald Trump is clearly on the wrong side of the First Amendment. His Truth Social post spelled out his rationale, deeming “fake news” not protected speech:
I don’t have much sympathy for corporate outlets that whine about credentials, since not one would ever help independents get passes. Also, it’s not like you need tags to cover the White House. News outlets should be comfortable being on the outside, geographically and figuratively. They should be more upset about being denied FOIAs than White House passes. Listening to coverage, you’d think Jim Acosta losing his pass was the modern version of Bobby Seale gagged in court. It’s absurd.
However, it absolutely violates the First Amendment when the Executive gives benefits to some organizations, and denies others because of what they say. In that sense, Trump’s “Truth” made things worse by spelling out the reasons for his “assault” (limited to purveyors of “FAKE NEWS”). If he’d just found merely underhanded and unscrupulous ways of punishing disfavored networks, like every previous president, he’d be fine. Even Trump’s most ardent supporters by now have to face the fact that he has a unique talent for handing political opponents the perfect bludgeon to beat his head in. He also continues to make an ass of every legislator, lawyer, or reporter who spent the pre-2024 period defending him on speech grounds.
That pre-2024 period, however, is the reason this story (and most every other speech story connected to Trump) will be misreported. I’m giving a talk in Philadelphia later this year that will spell out the problem more, but reporting on this administration’s speech offenses is increasingly becoming the means of whitewashing worse history by other actors. This story is a gruesome example:
