US justice department probes TV networks over Trump pool coverage
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The US justice department is investigating five television networks over whether they violated federal antitrust law by pausing pooled coverage of President Donald Trump, deepening his administration’s rift with the media.
The networks — ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News — temporarily refused to provide pool coverage of Trump’s activities after he banned CNN and other outlets from the White House last month.
Emily Covington, a DoJ spokesperson, told the FT that members of the TV pool had “boycotted” covering such events.
“Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” a landmark antitrust law, she said in a statement. “The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.”
The five networks did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump has long expressed contempt for the media, but he has increased pressure and escalated attacks on news outlets in his second presidency.
The president has launched lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages from outlets including the New York Times, BBC and The Wall Street Journal over their reporting, and the Federal Communications Commission has opened probes into Disney’s ABC over its programming decisions.
His ban of CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House was challenged by the news outlets and temporarily blocked by a federal judge. The judge, Timothy Kelly, is weighing whether to extend indefinitely his order barring Trump’s ban from taking effect.
The FT is among more than four dozen news outlets and media advocacy groups that signed on to an amicus brief backing CNN, MS Now and Politico.
Associated Press launched a separate legal battle last year after Trump blocked the news wire from attending certain White House events. The president banned the agency over its refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
Press advocacy organisations condemned the probe as an effort to pressure the networks into compliance.
“Depriving Trump of the attention he craves is not a competitive harm and, in any case, antitrust law has long recognized First Amendment exceptions even when there is anti-competitive impact,” said Seth Stern, chief of advocacy for the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
José Zamora, a Committee to Protect Journalists director, wrote on social media: “The government should not use antitrust investigations to intimidate news outlets defending press access.”
The antitrust investigation was first reported by the New York Times.
