Balanced News from the Left, Center and Right (Left, Center, and Right-leaning perspectives)

ABC News (Lean Left bias), CBS News (Lean Left), Fox News (Right), and NBC News (Lean Left) pulled themselves from the White House television pool on Monday after President Donald Trump banned CNN (Lean Left), MS NOW (Left) and Politico (Lean Left) from White House coverage.

For Context: The banned outlets filed a retaliatory lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday, saying, "There will be no replacement pool put in place," and asserted in a joint statement, "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting."

Trump's Reasoning: Trump alluded to slander and libel when justifying his initial stance on Friday. He argued, "Media outlets shouldn't be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they're covering the president of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America." He furthered this opinion on Monday: "The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America."

Plaintiffs' Argument: The plaintiffs asserted in their lawsuit, "This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment… No official can deprive Plaintiffs of [their journalistic] interests on a whim – with no notice, no process, and no warning – as the President did here." They alleged three First Amendment violations:

• Due Process: "CNN, MS NOW, Politico, and their journalists have liberty and property interests in their press credentials and the access those credentials afford to the White House grounds to report on the President and his administration. The ban deprives them of those interests without meeting the bare minimum requirements of due process: advance notice based on clear standards and an opportunity to be heard."
• Protected Research and Speech: "The ban retaliates against protected newsgathering and speech… The President's statements make clear he implemented the ban to coerce more favorable coverage."
• Nonpublic Forums: "It bars CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from a nonpublic forum [which] may not discriminate based on viewpoint and must be reasonable in light of the purposes of the forum. The President's ban brazenly discriminates based on editorial viewpoint[s]."

Media Comparisons: The Daily Wire (Right) gave voice to Vice President JD Vance, who echoed Trump's argument on Monday: "Compare, let's say, Politico to Breitbart [Right]. If you actually look at the objective analysis, Politico is as anti-Trump as Breitbart was anti-Obama or anti-Biden. Now, why on God's green earth would Trump be expected to give Politico special access when nobody in the media expected the Biden administration or the Obama administration to give Breitbart special access? It's about basic fairness. They can still report. They still have the access to free speech. They're just not going to get an office in the White House anymore… unless, of course, they start behaving like real news organizations."

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