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Simon Marks reacts as America's major television networks decline to participate in White House pool duties moving forward in response to the Trump administration's ban on media outlets.
"Effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President," Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton wrote in an email to TV pool subscribers.
"This follows the White House's position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place."
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0:00
Simon, just before the news headlines there, I said the press pool has finally found its spine
0:05
Tell us what's going on. Well, indeed it has, Sheila. I mean, all of this, as you know, arising from the president's decision
0:13
late last week to announce that CNN, MSNOW and Politico were no longer going to be allowed to
0:21
cover events at the White House. And indeed, all of their passes to enter the White House have since
0:25
been deactivated. They, within the last few hours, have announced that collectively they are launching
0:32
a lawsuit targeting President Trump and several of his named top officials, accusing him of acting
0:40
illegally in ousting them from the White House, saying that he has essentially contravened the
0:45
First Amendment to the American Constitution that says the government, whether it's the President
0:49
or the Congress, will do nothing to abridge the freedom of the press. And then we have learned
0:55
within the last hour that the presidential network TV pool has come to a complete standstill
1:04
Now, to some extent, that was an inevitability because unfortunately for President Trump
1:09
the pool is rostered out at least a week in advance. So inevitably CNN. And CNN today is
1:15
supposed to be the network pool camera covering every move that the president makes on behalf
1:21
of the five founding members of the pool, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and Fox News
1:29
but, of course, also on behalf of all the subscribers who pay money to receive the images
1:35
that that presidential press pool distributes. The current chair of the pool is Brian Boughton
1:42
who's the Washington Bureau Chief of Fox News and someone I've had many dealings with in the past
1:47
an absolute consummate professional, and in his capacity as chair of the pool
1:52
he put a note out today to all of its members to say, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events
1:59
designated as pool coverage of the president. This follows the White House position
2:04
preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place
2:12
All other pool coverage, all the other pools that exist around Washington
2:16
including the one up on Capitol Hill, will continue functioning as normal
2:20
So, for instance, when President Trump makes his speech to the United Nations, we'll all see that because that will be covered by UNTV
2:27
But what we won't see, unless something changes in the next few hours
2:32
is the President's travel, his departure from the White House, his arrival in New York, the motorcade through the streets
2:40
all of those pictures that the presidential pool exists to gather every single day
2:46
on behalf... The show of state. The man of power. Exactly. I mean, all the images that are hugely important to him
2:53
and hugely valuable. And there been one further development just in the last 20 minutes or so An official statement signed by those five pool foundational members
3:07
Again, the three broadcast networks plus CNN and Fox. They say the public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government
3:17
No administration should restrict a news organisation because it objects to its reporting
3:25
And what's so interesting about this is not so much that it was signed by ABC, CNN and NBC
3:33
but the fact that CBS, now owned by the Ellison father and son, very much on its knees before Trump
3:43
and Fox News, a Murdoch enterprise, have signed on to that statement
3:48
It's a very different beast. Yeah, very, very different beasts coming together in their capacity
3:52
which, you know, certainly is not quite a constitutional capacity, but it's a capacity as key members of the fourth estate of American government
4:01
the media, saying we're not playing this game anymore. So now the ball is suddenly back in Trump's court
4:09
I heard a journalist, an American journalist last night actually, commenting about the banning, not this latest news
4:15
but saying that he felt that the press had, in the face of his bullying
4:21
and his really degrading speech towards female journalists that they'd been too supine, that it was time to kick back
4:36
Absolutely. And, you know, allowing somebody to be denigrated like that, whoever they are, for no good reason
4:42
and then just sitting there quietly while it happens. I mean, it is school bully stuff, isn't it
4:46
Sitting there quietly while it happens. And while he denigrates, and you're absolutely right to point out
4:50
mostly female reporters who cover him, insisting that you should smile more
4:56
You know, she's a young woman. I don't think I've ever seen you smile. I've known you for 10 years
5:02
I don't think I've ever seen a smile on your face. You know, you're a disgrace
5:06
He then refuses to let them ask their quest, quiet piggy. Quiet, quiet piggy
5:11
He then moves on, and another reporter just picks up and doesn't even say, well, I'll ask the question that she was asking
5:18
Of course, they should stand up and walk out, of course. And, you know, we saw, I think, somewhat a supine response over the weekend from the White House Correspondents Association to the banning of CNN, Politico and MS Now
5:30
And MS Now, if people are not sure what that is, it's a left-leaning channel that used to be called MSNBC, recently rebranded
5:38
I wondered when you said that. It's now independent of NBC. It's been put into a different company
5:44
So it sits alongside CNBC, for example, the business channel in that group, that business group
5:50
So I mean the White House Correspondents Association over the weekend said that they were standing in solidarity of these news organisations that had been exited from the White House although what that meant in practical terms was very unclear especially coming as it did
6:06
from the organisation that just weeks ago had controversially afforded the President a platform
6:11
at the White House Correspondents Association rearranged dinner to spout attacks on individual
6:17
journalists and broadcast networks and other publishers that he accuses falsely of
6:24
disseminating fake news and also launching more broadly an attack on the freedom of the press
6:31
I think it is what we are witnessing today is the biggest assault on press freedom that any
6:38
American president has waged and it may, may lead to changes in the composition of the White House
6:47
press pool that, because unless Donald Trump backs down and says, okay, let him back in
6:53
we'll go back to what we were doing before. He has another option. He's already flooded the zone
6:59
with propaganda outlets. They've already done this at the Pentagon. They kicked all the mainstream
7:05
media channels, all the, what they refer to as the legacy media channels out of the Pentagon
7:09
and replaced them with pure propagandists. It's not inconceivable to imagine that he now tries to
7:16
create a presidential pool that is not staffed by the big broadcast networks, but instead is staffed
7:23
only by propaganda outlets. That may be where this all heads. I can see it now. Blonde bots that all
7:31
look like Ivanka and lantern-jawed men who look like Pete Hegseth. Yeah, I mean, and it's clear
7:38
which news organisations they would come from, not news organisations, which propaganda outlets
7:42
they would come from. They'd come from One America OAN, One America News, a misnomer
7:47
They would come potentially from organisations like Steve Bannon's War Room. They would come from a host of other lesser known titles here in the UK, but nonetheless
7:59
very, very present organisations. And they include those organisations that now sit in seats
8:06
in the Pentagon's media briefing space that used to be occupied by serious-minded news organisations
8:13
Now, am I right in saying that tomorrow, when Andy Burnham meets Donald Trump
8:18
there were no plans for a big sort of armchair moment? Yeah, we've not yet had the guidance from the White House
8:26
about what happens tomorrow, but I think it would be unlikely. There may, under all of the..
8:33
He's going to be having a whole host of bilateral meetings with leaders, not to minimise the importance of the conversation
8:38
that he's going to have with Andy Burnham. It would be normal for the TV network pool
8:43
to be there for the first couple of minutes of each meeting and do the spray on behalf of everybody else
8:49
The spray is the handful of questions. Or even just the handshake and nice to see you, nice to see you
8:55
cameras please leave the room thing I don like that description It conjures something very bad in me So there certainly isn going to be as things currently stand any network pool coverage of that moment
9:09
It is a bit complicated, all of this, because there is something there called the independent pool
9:16
which is an arrangement that has been cooked up many years ago by the Associated Press and C-SPAN
9:22
and they on any given day assign a camera to the White House and to the President
9:28
and then they share the footage with themselves and with some other people
9:32
But they haven't got anything like the resources of the major broadcast networks
9:35
When the President travels, the major broadcast networks throw money at this
9:41
to make sure that everybody gets the pictures. And the money involved in this is not entirely separate from what's happened today
9:50
Because if CNN is no longer able to get into the White House, well, that's one fifth of the budget that underscores the press pool, the presidential TV network pool, suddenly gone
10:03
And so there are financial questions that have to be answered about all of this as well
10:09
Is this akin to something like Natasha Clark, Aggie, Bethany, all the lobby reporters in Westminster just saying, no, we're not covering PMQs
10:20
And yes, it's close to that. I mean, the difficulty is that because things have shifted so radically in the United States, not just over the last year and a half since Trump came back to power, but of course, during his first term in office as well
10:34
The sense of solidarity that I think would still exist here is not as widespread as it once might have been in the United States
10:45
Sharp elbows. So, you know, when we were back in the halcyon days of Kellyanne Conway in the first administration talking about alternative facts and Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany, if you can remember them as White House press secretaries, they flooded the zone with propagandists
11:03
but the White House Correspondents Association didn't give them house room. So they all had to stand at the back of the room and down the sides shouting questions
11:12
And they weren't officially recognised by the White House Correspondents Association. The Correspondents Association has been eviscerated by Trump in his second term
11:21
and by Caroline Levitt, his now former White House press secretary. And so there are seats in the room now for propagandists
11:30
And by the way, we should all be very aware that when we race onto the air or you see it being reported on social media that the president has had something negative to say once again about the British prime minister, any British prime minister, it's often because he's been invited to do that by reporters who are really propagandists, not..
11:54
Who need the line. Exactly. Who want the line. They've been sent in there to get the line
11:58
Let's see if it has any impact on that visit tomorrow
#news