Is This the End of TV News?
On September 18, President Trump announced on Truth Social that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were banned from the White House, and the outlets’ hard passes were deactivated. The three companies sued on September 21 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia (CNN, Inc. v. Trump, No. 1:26-cv-03287), alleging they were denied due process and punished for their coverage. On September 22, four days after the ban, the White House Press Office sent each outlet a letter accusing it of “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information.” The letters cited reporting on a bunker beneath the East Wing ballroom, the Iran war, a leak investigation and Russia sanctions talks, and gave each outlet until Friday to respond. At a hearing on September 23, Judge Timothy Kelly said the pre-deprivation process required by D.C. Circuit precedent “wasn’t followed here,” and did not rule from the bench. Two days earlier, the White House had launched Trump TV, a 24/7 stream on YouTube.
The obvious reading is that the government found its national security argument too late. Sherrill v. Knight (1977) and Karem v. Trump (2020) accept that a press pass can be denied for legitimate reasons, including security, but require notice and a chance to respond first. The White House has real grievances with how national security stories have been covered, from the treatment of Edward Snowden in 2013 to the Steele dossier reporting of 2016, which the Justice Department’s inspector general later found the FBI could not corroborate. The legal fight may matter less than the strategic one. With the networks suspending pool coverage and the White House streaming its own events, the question is whether a president can stop competing for television coverage altogether and build a parallel channel, and whether audiences lose anything if he does.
Eric Garland is an intelligence analyst personally sanctioned by the Russian Federation in May 2022 for his work on Russian intelligence operations. He is the author of the 2016 “Game Theory” thread, named by The New York Times as one of the 25 most important tweets in history.
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SOURCES
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, CNN, Inc. v. Trump, No. 1:26-cv-03287, complaint filed September 21, 2026 White House Press Office letters to CNN, MS NOW and Politico, September 22, 2026, and Justice Department opposition filing, as reported by ABC News and CBS News Sherrill v. Knight, 569 F.2d 124 (D.C. Cir. 1977) Karem v. Trump, 960 F.3d 656 (D.C. Cir. 2020) House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden, September 2016 U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane Investigation, December 2019 The White House, Agreement between the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark and the Government of Greenland to amend and supplement the Defense Agreement of April 27, 1951, September 2026 The White House (@WhiteHouse) on X, Trump TV launch post, September 21, 2026 White House Historical Association, “The Press at the White House, 1952–1963” Reuters, “Judge says Trump’s White House media ban may not comply with legal precedents,” September 23, 2026 The Hill, “Judge skeptical of White House press ban on Politico, MS NOW, CNN: Due process ‘wasn’t followed’,” September 23, 2026 CBS News, “Judge skeptical of Trump’s White House ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico,” September 23, 2026 ABC News, “DOJ defends White House news bans, saying access a ‘privilege’ and citing national security concerns,” September 2026 Al Jazeera, “Trump signs ‘tremendous’ Arctic security deal with Denmark, Greenland,” September 22, 2026
