U.S. DOJ Will Probe TV Networks Over President Trump’s Pool Coverage

The U.S. Department of Justice has told five of the nation’s biggest TV-news outlets that it plans to investigate whether a recent decision to suspend pool coverage of President Trump after he denied White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico violated antitrust rules, according to three people familiar with the matter.

“Members of the television press pool have proudly boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” a Justice Department spokesperson told the New York Times in a statement published Saturday evening. “The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.”

The Department of Justice did not respond immediately to a query seeking comment. CNN, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and Fox News declined to comment or did not respond immediately to a query seeking a response.

Whether the DOJ has legal standing may be in doubt — the networks have coordinated pool coverage for decades without any legal challenge to their process — the action will likely only intensify a battle between the White House and the media. MS NOW, CNN and Politico sued President Donald Trump and other administration official in late September over a decision by Trump to ban the three news organizations from newsgathering at the White House. The TV networks in response briefly suspended pool coverage in protest and to weigh against a decision that threated First Amendment rights.

The Constitution “protects the liberty and property interests that news organizations and White House reporters have in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford them to cover the White House for the benefit of the public,” MS NOW, CNN and Politico alleged in their legal filing. “No official can deprive Plaintiffs of those interests on a whim — with no notice, no process, and no warning — as the President did here.”

A federal judge has issued a temporary block on Trump’s ban, but the matter is still enmeshed in the courts.