The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into five of the country’s largest television news organizations — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — over their joint response to the White House’s decision to keep CNN out of the presidential press pool.
The networks share the cost and logistics of the television pool that follows President Donald Trump into tight spaces such as Air Force One. After the White House blocked CNN from taking its scheduled pool shifts, the other four networks declined to step in for it on those days. As a result, the pool did not cover Trump’s event with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act. The Antitrust Division is investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.” — Justice Department statement
“A brazen attempt to intimidate”
None of the five networks commented. Press freedom advocates condemned the probe. Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said invoking antitrust powers on top of the White House’s exclusion of certain outlets was “an even more brazen attempt to try to intimidate journalists,” while Seth Stern of the Freedom of the Press Foundation called the investigation “nonsense.”
The dispute follows the administration’s decision last month to bar CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House and to revoke the press passes of more than 70 journalists. The three outlets sued, and a federal judge temporarily ordered their access restored, with a fuller ruling expected by Tuesday. The New York Times first reported the investigation.
