N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Major American media have decided to stop part of their coverage of the White House, because CNN was not allowed to go with the president to New York in the run up to the General Assembly of the United Nations. A new escalation in the battle between President Donald Trump and the traditional media.
CNN, Politico and MS Now also went to court against a decision of Trump at the end of last week to deny them access to the White House. They asked the court immediately to reverse that decision, because it would be a violation of the First Amendment of the American Constitution. This protects the free gathering of news as a fundamental right.
The news channels ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News, having an agreement with CNN to share responsibility for filming the president’s activities for years, have announced that they will collectively stop filming President Trump’s activities. It is striking that Fox News, usually the least critical of Trump, is joining.
Trump is already fighting legal battles with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and also the BBC and his latest decisions fall in a difficult political period. With the midterm elections of November 3 in sight, Trump is struggling with low popularity among the voters without a decisive party preference. They are disgruntled about rising energy prices and the resulting galloping inflation.
The challenge to political reporting and media freedoms could not be happening at a more critical time.
