Justice Department is investigating TV networks over Trump pool coverage
The inquiry is a profound escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing battles with the White House press corps.
The Justice Department is investigating whether the major television networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News — violated federal antitrust laws when the group briefly suspended their pooled coverage of President Donald Trump, according to six people with knowledge of the department’s action.
Officials from the Justice Department contacted networks Friday and demanded communications and materials related to the White House TV pool, the people said. The pool is a long-standing system where the networks share the responsibility of providing footage of the president and distributing it to other news outlets.
Last month, the networks collectively suspended their pool footage of Trump for several days after the president banned CNN journalists from the White House grounds, which prevented CNN from participating in the pool.
The inquiry by the Justice Department is a profound escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing battles with the White House press corps. It also follows a pattern of the Trump administration using the levers of government against its perceived foes in the media. The Justice Department has subpoenaed reporters from the New York Times and seized a laptop from a Washington Post journalist.
A Justice Department spokesperson, Emily Covington, said in a statement Saturday: “Members of the television press pool have proudly boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” a core antitrust law.
“The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws,” Covington added.
The White House did not immediately respond to an inquiry Saturday, and representatives for the five networks did not immediately comment.
The latest skirmish was set off when Trump, lamenting what he described as “purposely negative stories,” barred CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from the White House on Sept. 18.
The three news organizations sued, calling the president’s action a violation of their First Amendment rights; the administration argued that access to the White House was a “privilege.” A federal judge issued a temporary block on the ban, which is set to expire Tuesday.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
