Department of Justice says it\u2019s investigating whether the White House press pool\u2019s decision violated antitrust laws.<\/p>\n
Published On 11 Oct 202611 Oct 2026<\/p>\n
The United States Department of Justice has opened an investigation into television networks\u2019 decision to halt coverage of President Donald Trump last month.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson said on Saturday that the department was investigating whether the networks violated federal antitrust laws by their boycott, which followed a White House decision to pull the credentials<\/a> of reporters from three news organisations, including CNN.<\/p>\n Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n The \u2060networks under investigation are ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News, said Emily Convington, the Justice Department spokesperson.<\/p>\n \u201cGroup boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,\u201d she said of the antitrust legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.\u201d<\/p>\n The investigation is the latest in a series \u200cof clashes between the Trump administration and major news organisations. Trump has repeatedly called the mainstream media \u201cfake news\u201d and frequently clashes with reporters during encounters with the press.<\/p>\n The action also puts legal and potentially financial pressure on the media to continue coverage of the president even when they disagree with how the White House handles them.<\/p>\n The networks did not immediately comment on the announcement.<\/p>\n The Justice Department\u2019s move came after the television pool of five broadcasters last month ceased presidential coverage after the administration barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House.<\/p>\n The White House said on September 19 that covering the president was a \u201cprivilege \u2013 not a right\u201d. The outlets \u2060sued the administration, alleging the exclusions violated the First Amendment and that the White House was retaliating over their coverage.<\/p>\n CNN is one of the five \u2060news organisations \u2013 along with ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC \u2013 \u2060that make up the primary White House television pool<\/a>.<\/p>\n They share the costs of covering the president, take turns organising coverage, and share the footage with outlets around the country.<\/p>\n All of the five television networks that cover the White House, including Fox \u200cNews, suspended coverage in solidarity and refused to provide replacement coverage.<\/p>\n The White House reinstated the credentials<\/a> on September 24 after US District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled<\/a> that the ban was likely unconstitutional and \u200cordered \u200cthe administration to \u201cimmediately return, reinstate, and restore\u201d their access.<\/p>\n However, disputes over access to specific presidential events and pool assignments continued.<\/p>\n Jose Zamora, the Committee to Protect Journalists\u2019 Americas director, on Saturday criticised the administration\u2019s decision to investigate.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government should not use antitrust investigations to intimidate news outlets defending press access,\u201d Zamora said on X. \u201cThe public\u2019s right to know depends on that access.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Department of Justice says it\u2019s investigating whether the White House press pool\u2019s decision violated antitrust laws. Published On…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":878523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,12,39979,3,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":["post-878522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-donald-trump","tag-freedom-of-the-press","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=878522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/878523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=878522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=878522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=878522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}