Fox News decided on Monday to stop its part in the TV pool. This move leaves President Trump without a major cable news feed for his trip to New York. The network joined ABC, CBS, and NBC in this decision. They will not cover his address to the U.N. General Assembly this week. The TV pool helps reporters share video of the president’s public events. Without it, the broadcast picture goes dark for millions of viewers.
The White House tried to use a smaller group of networks to record the president. They needed footage for his new heliport ribbon-cutting ceremony on the South Lawn. But the sound was too loud to hear him clearly. The Marine One engine was running right behind him. Social media users made fun of the poor audio quality. The technical failure showed just how much the big networks matter to getting the president’s message out.
President Trump did not wait long to fight back against the blackout. He launched his own streaming service called Trump TV on Monday evening. The administration said the channel is streaming now, 24/7. It features top past moments and the latest updates from the White House. On July 3rd at Mount Rushmore, Trump delivered a speech that constituted the first broadcast. The rollout came after a long day of fights with the media. Five major networks suspended their shared coverage due to the ban on CNN, MSNow, and Politico.
The major networks issued a joint statement about the situation. Accurate information reception was described by them as a vital public interest. A White House official told the Washington Examiner that the fake news has no place in the Oval Office. The official claimed they can report from outside. Trump called the boycott interesting because he said they never actually boycott him. He pointed to the large crowd of reporters at Gracie Mansion. He said he won the election in a landslide and settled eight wars.
The standoff includes more than just the TV networks. The Washington Post and The New York Times, among other print newspapers, agreed to withhold photos. They will not publish images taken by still photographers until after midnight. This is a show of solidarity with the TV networks. The White House shrugged off these attacks in a statement. They said access changes are nothing new. The rule was never that every outlet gets in.
Fox News has had a complicated past with the president and his teams. A defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems resulted in a $787.5 million settlement. The channel also fired anchor Maria Bartiromo this month. She had shared guidance not to give credibility to Trump’s claims about the 2020 election.
