Paula Reid joins MS NOW as White House access fight continues
The former CNN correspondent is joining MS NOW's White House team as the network and two other outlets press a lawsuit over access restrictions.
Paula Reid is joining MS NOW as its chief White House reporter, The Hollywood Reporter reported on October 29. The move puts the former CNN correspondent on a team covering the Trump administration while MS NOW fights White House access restrictions in court.
In a staff memo reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Washington bureau chief Sudeep Reddy said Reid would cover the administration, report across the Washington bureau and help drive its investigative and enterprise journalism. He said the team had kept working through attempts to limit its White House access.
What Paula Reid will do at MS NOW
Reid joins a White House operation that The Hollywood Reporter says includes director Scott Foster, senior reporter Vaughn Hillyard and reporters Laura Barrón-López, Akayla Gardner and Jake Traylor. Reddy said Reid and the team would work to deepen the network's coverage of the White House and Washington.
At CNN, Reid covered the Justice Department, Supreme Court and other legal matters and also filled in as an anchor, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Before CNN, she worked at CBS News, covering the Justice Department and the White House. Her new assignment returns her to a beat she has covered before, this time at a network building out its own Washington bureau after separating from NBC News.
Why White House access is part of the story
MS NOW, CNN and Politico expanded their lawsuit against the White House on October 28, Reuters reported. Their amended complaint asks a federal judge to stop the administration from excluding them from press pools that cover events in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One. Those pools allow reporters to cover presidential events in spaces too small for the full press corps.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly has issued orders since September 24 requiring the administration to restore White House access for journalists from the three organisations, Reuters reported. The outlets allege that, despite those orders, they remain barred from certain areas in retaliation for their coverage. Their latest filing seeks protection for access to the smaller pools as well as the access addressed by the earlier orders.
The White House rejected their demand for an Oval Office pool spot. ‘The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office,’ it said in a statement reported by Reuters. The dispute remains before the court as Reid takes up her new role.
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Sources and context
- Paula Reid Joins MS NOW as Chief White House ReporterThe Hollywood Reporter
- CNN, MS NOW, Politico expand lawsuit over White House access limitsReuters (carried by The Straits Times)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.