Trump speaks without sound as US networks halt pool coverage

Update, 22 September, 05:08 Israel time

Trump delivered remarks at a White House event without audio reaching broadcasters, Ynet's alerts service reported, after news organisations suspended the shared pool arrangement.

The Times of Israel reported that Trump ordered the three outlets barred on Friday, and that the top five American broadcasters said on Monday they were halting pool coverage of the White House in solidarity with CNN, which had been scheduled to serve as the television pool that day. The report identifies the three barred and litigating outlets as CNN, MS NOW and Politico.

According to the same report, two presidential appearances went ahead without live television coverage: the opening of a newly built White House helipad and Trump's departure for the United Nations General Assembly. It also described video screens in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room as switched off, in a caption to an Associated Press photograph dated September 21.

The Times of Israel characterised the networks' action as a boycott of coverage of the president and placed it within what it called a long-running conflict between Trump and mainstream American media. The report does not give the court in which the suit was filed, the relief sought, or any indication of when pooled coverage might resume.

The story as first reported

Several of the largest news organisations in the United States said they would stop covering President Donald Trump's events and would take the administration to court, after Trump announced he would bar them from the grounds of the presidential residence. Ynet reported that Politico, CNN and MS NOW are filing suit against the administration, describing the access restrictions as a threat to press freedom and contrary to law, and that emergency hearings could be held within the week.

The Telegram channel Abu Ali Express reported that three outlets, which it listed as CNN, MSNBC and Politico, announced they would cease covering the president's events and would sue over what they called an infringement of press freedom. Ynet's alerts service later said the Washington Post had joined the coverage boycott. There is a discrepancy in the material over the name of one participant: some reports identify it as MSNBC, others as MS NOW.

What the White House press pool is, and why its suspension matters

Routine coverage of an American president does not work by letting every journalist into every room. Instead, a small rotating group of reporters and camera crews, known as the pool, accompanies the president on behalf of everyone else and shares what it gathers with the wider press corps. Axios correspondent Barak Ravid, writing on X, said the primary White House television pool comprises 5 networks: CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN and Fox. The networks take turns covering the president at pooled events and on trips, then distribute the footage to the others and to additional outlets.

Ravid said that on the day in question there was no television pool at all, meaning Trump would travel to the United Nations General Assembly without a crew accompanying him. The General Assembly is the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York, one of the most heavily covered events on the diplomatic calendar. Ynet reported that the major television networks had acted together and suspended the shared pool arrangement, and that Fox News was among them.

Trump's response

Trump defended the restrictions in terms quoted by the Hebrew-language reports. In remarks carried by Abu Ali Express, he said the White House "is not going out to attack the free press," which he called something dear to him, but rather against what he termed fake news, describing it as a phenomenon that had spread through the country and calling it corrupt, deliberate, wide-ranging and coordinated. He said it constituted a threat to national security.

Responding to the lawsuit, Trump was quoted by Israel's N12 foreign desk as saying that nearly every article written about him is negative, wrong and dangerous for the country, and asking why he should grant access to such people.

Why this is followed closely outside the United States

Access rules at the White House shape what the rest of the world sees of an American presidency. Footage from the pool is the raw material for television bulletins in dozens of countries, including Israel, where US presidential coverage is a staple of the evening news and where the American relationship is a permanent front-page subject. A suspension of the pool means broadcasters everywhere lose the standard supply of pictures of the president, including at an international summit.

The dispute also arrives as a legal question rather than only a political one. The outlets involved are framing their case around press freedom and the legality of excluding specific organisations from public facilities, according to the Ynet report, and they are seeking rapid judicial attention rather than a drawn-out process.

What the reports do not say

The material does not specify the legal grounds of the suit, the court in which it was filed, or what remedy the outlets are asking for. It does not say how long the coverage boycott is intended to last, or under what conditions it would end. It does not explain what prompted Trump's decision to restrict access, nor which specific journalists or organisations the ban formally names. The reports give no White House statement addressing the suspension of the pool itself, and no indication of whether the networks that are not party to the lawsuit intend to resume pooled coverage. The discrepancy over whether the third plaintiff is MSNBC or MS NOW is not resolved in the available material.