CNN left off Air Force One trip after judge restores White House access

CNN was left off Air Force One for President Donald Trump's September 26 trip to Tennessee after saying it had been scheduled to travel as part of the rotating television coverage of the president. White House guidance issued the previous night listed Real America's Voice instead. The change matters because footage gathered by the traveling television pool is shared with news organisations that cannot accompany the president.

The trip was for a college football game in Knoxville between the University of Tennessee and the University of Texas. The Associated Press reported that CNN had expected to take the flight under the US network video pool's rotation. A written report from the traveling press pool on Saturday morning said there was “no TV pool” for the journey, even though Real America's Voice appeared in the White House guidance.

What changed on the flight

The regular network video pool consists of CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC, according to the Associated Press. Its members rotate responsibility for recording and distributing video of presidential events. The flight place at issue had long been used by a member of that group. Real America's Voice is outside the regular network pool, so its inclusion in the guidance did not mean it had become a regular pool member.

Real America's Voice said it would make video feeds available to other outlets. Its correspondent Taylor Mitchell said in a video posted by the outlet: “CNN is not here; we have taken over that responsibility. We are so excited to be here.” The written pool report's description of “no TV pool” leaves a distinction between an outlet traveling and the established network pool formally covering the trip.

A court order with a narrower scope

The travel decision followed a legal setback for the administration over access to the White House grounds. Trump had barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico after criticising their reporting, and the three outlets sued. On September 24, US District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a 14-day temporary restraining order restoring their journalists' permanent White House credentials, commonly called hard passes, while the case continues.

NPR reported that Kelly found the outlets likely to succeed in showing that their passes had been revoked without constitutionally adequate due process. At the hearing, a Justice Department lawyer argued that White House access was a privilege and cited national security. Kelly said the record did not show how the reporting cited by the administration had damaged national security. Those findings concerned the removal of White House credentials; they were not a final decision on the wider lawsuit.

The order did not directly decide who could serve in the television pool or travel on Air Force One, according to the Associated Press. Theodore Boutrous Jr., a lawyer for the three outlets, said on CNN on Friday that the plaintiffs believed the ruling also covered pool access. That is their interpretation of the order, rather than an express ruling by the judge on the September 26 flight.

Why the pool dispute matters

The other four regular television pool providers had declined to participate after CNN was barred from White House grounds, in solidarity with the excluded outlets. Pool coverage resumed on Friday. CNN had an assignment at an event with Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the National Archives, and CNN media analyst Brian Stelter said the White House had approved the network's credentials for that event. The next day's flight showed that restored entry to the White House had not resolved every question about pool travel.

The press pool exists so a small rotating group can report and distribute images from events that the full press corps cannot attend. That arrangement gives other newsrooms access to observations and footage from presidential travel. The distinction between the flight list and the written report matters for that reason: the White House included an outlet willing to share a feed, while the regular network television pool did not cover the trip in its usual form.

The dispute over White House grounds access preceded this flight decision. NewsJaws has also covered the earlier ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico. The temporary court order addresses the journalists' credentials as the lawsuit proceeds; neither the order nor the reporting reviewed establishes how the White House will assign television pool places on later flights.