Has Trump’s ban against the media backfired?

Justin Webb (0:00)

It's Trump versus the media again.

We started the week with Donald Trump banning three major news organizations from the White House. We are ending the week with a win for the media, at least for now. Although the judge has ordered a temporary reprieve that press credentials should be immediately restored for CNN, Politico and Ms Now, the battle is not over. So what will the Trump administration do next to stifle media coverage that he doesn't like? And who wins in the battle to control the media? Is it going to be Donald Trump or the press? Welcome to Americast.

Marianna Spring (0:39)

Americast. Americast from BBC News.

SPEAKER_3 (0:42)

Whatever you want to talk about, Abdul, keep my wife's name the hell out of your mouth because she's way out of your league.

SPEAKER_4 (0:48)

The tide is coming. And this time we intend to win it all.

SPEAKER_5 (0:54)

So he doesn't want to do the job.

He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar. When I'm not around, you're going to be broke.

Marianna Spring (1:08)

There's not going to be anybody to report on. Nobody gives a damn about anybody else.

Justin Webb (1:18)

Hello, it's Justin in the worldwide headquarters of Americast in London, England.

Marianna Spring (1:22)

And it is Marianna sitting next to Justin in the worldwide headquarters.

Anthony Zurcher (1:25)

And it's Anthony here in the American headquarters of Americast in Washington, DC.

Justin Webb (1:30)

OK, later on, we're going to be joined by Frank Sesno. I've already interviewed Frank, actually, and Frank is a former White House correspondent for CNN, someone who teaches journalism now and is very much a critic of what the Trump administration has done, which you would expect, but also someone who's quite knowledgeable about the extent to which any of this might have happened in recent decades. And if I give you a quick kind of spoiler alert, he doesn't think it would have happened or did happen in any previous decade. And he's been around a long time, has Frank. So it's going to be interesting to sort of put this into an historical context, just how bizarre and potentially, I suppose, groundbreaking this row is. But Anthony, let's go to the row itself first of all. Maybe take us back to how it began. So what is it that the Trump administration has actually stopped happening? And what is it that they've lost, at least at this stage in court?

Anthony Zurcher (2:28)

Well, this is all announced by Donald Trump on Truth Social last week. He said that he was going to be banning CNN, Ms Now, which used to be known as MSNBC, the cable news network, and Politico, which is a website and big media outlet here in Washington DC, from accessing the White House, from covering the White House, from being part of any pool or being in press briefings, even from setting foot on the White House grounds. That caused a bit of an uproar. On Saturday, we found out exactly what that meant. That meant that when reporters from Politico, CNN, and MSNBC now tried to enter the White House grounds, they had their press credentials confiscated by the Secret Service. They were not allowed in. They were turned away essentially at the gate. When you go to cover the White House, there's a big fence around the building. You have to show your pass. You have to swipe it. When these reporters swipe their pass to go through the metal detectors and enter the White House grounds, the Secret Service says, oh no, took the passes away and they were asked to leave. All of this created an uproar over the weekend, led to a decision by the other TV networks that cover the White House as part of a pooled coverage along with CNN to stop doing that until CNN was granted access.

And then these three media outlets filed a lawsuit against the White House claiming that the ban was violating their First Amendment freedom of the press rights.

Justin Webb (3:55)

So Donald Trump, Marianna, is no longer anywhere to be seen. He has been silenced totally by this or not.

Marianna Spring (4:03)

Yeah, very much not silenced. There has been less TV coverage of Donald Trump because some of the other organizations aren't taking part in the pool, which we chatted about on American answers and therefore he's not being filmed. And that includes actually Fox News. But obviously also remember Donald Trump is very good at posting a lot about himself. So how much does he need? The television is kind of another question. And the administration have announced the launch of this thing, Trump TV. But the sound was not so good, not of America's levels. Listen to what happened on Monday. This is material released by the White House for the unveiling of a helipad. The president is speaking, but you can't really hear it.