Network TV pool refuses to cover Trump after White House bars CNN from its rotating slot

The five-network White House TV pool — CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC — suspended pooled coverage of President Trump on Monday after the White House prevented CNN from fulfilling its scheduled pool duties for Trump's trip to New York.

Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton, who holds the rotating role organizing TV pool crews, wrote in an email that "there will be no replacement pool put in place" and that the pool would not cover events designated as pool coverage. The five networks said in a joint statement that "no administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting."

The result was visible immediately. No network camera traveled with the president for the first time in modern press coverage. At a ribbon-cutting for a new Marine One helipad on the South Lawn, the White House streamed its own footage, but Trump's remarks were inaudible over the helicopter's engine. The New York Times and Washington Post said they would not share still images from Trump events.

Trump called the boycotting outlets "Third Rate Clowns" and said his team would file an appeal.