Major TV Networks Stand with CNN, Decline to Replace WH Pool Crew

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Anderson Cooper (0:56)

Good evening from the newsroom. Tonight a president who once shoved a fellow world leader aside to get out front at a photo opportunity discovered what it's like to have one less camera to get out in front of. That is Montenegro's prime minister. He's manhandling at the 2017 NATO summit.

Just looking back. Today though, for the first time in modern memory, the one camera that's at the White House or that travels with a president almost always, including back then, was not there. It's called the pool camera. It gives pool coverage. It's a responsibility dating back to the 1950s. And CNN and other major networks for decades have shared, so that when a president makes news or makes history or something terrible happens to the president, there's always at least one camera to capture the moment. The networks take turns doing pool coverage and it shares, sharing the video, even though we might compete on just everything else. Well, today, CNN was scheduled to be the pool crew. But the White House said no, three days after banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico were on the premises. The three news outlets today filed a federal lawsuit seeking to restore access. The other major networks stood in solidarity, declining to replace CNN in the pool. A number of print and wire outlets added their support, meaning there was no pool coverage. And a White House ribbon cutting for his new helipad today looked and sounded like this on Newsmax.

SPEAKER_7 (2:16)

Okay, so there is no microphone because the pool cameras aren't there. So maybe, Tim, this is one example of it backfiring just a little bit.

Anderson Cooper (2:27)

That was the Newsmax anchor. There was no pool coverage of that. There was no pool coverage of his arrival today in New York for the UN. General Assembly. The pool members putting out a joint statement today, which reads in part, The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting. That notion is at the heart of the lawsuit, which says the president's action, quote, could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles. The hearing is set for Wednesday. The administration has until tomorrow to file a response. The president has already weighed in on social media, quoting from his post, which ran to more than 300 words. Virtually every story about me or anything having to do with me is negative, wrong, and in many cases, dangerous for our country, no matter how great my achievements, they trivialize and demean. He concludes in all caps with, fake news is a threat to democracy.

Now, keep it honest though, for someone who has such little regard for the people covering him, he certainly takes every opportunity he can to spend time with them. These videos are from just the last two weeks. He goes out of his way to turn photo ops to press conferences and signing ceremonies into long soliloquies. He engages with reporters whether he likes them or not.

Are you trying to intimidate the press from doing a job?

SPEAKER_8 (3:45)

No, no, no, no.

I dislike dishonest press, like you. I think you're terrible, but I dislike dishonest, I like to see honest press.

Anderson Cooper (3:55)

Well, President Trump is saying he dislikes dishonesty. That's Catherine Lucey, by the way, of Bloomberg. You may remember him once telling her after a question about Jeffrey Epstein, and these are his words, quiet piggy. Despite that, he is still talking to her. So why the ban on CNN, MSNOW, and Politico? On Friday, the president said there was no reason.