Trump response, at Truth Social: "The White House is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish. It is instituting an assault on the FAKE NEWS, something that has grown like Cancer in our beloved United States of America. It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!"
21 सितंबर 2026
"This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes."
Say CNN, MS NOW, Politico, quoted in "CNN, MS NOW, Politico to sue White House over blocked access" (Axios).
Tags:
censorship,
fake news,
free speech,
journalism,
law,
Trump and the press

80 टिप्पणियां:
Is Jim Acosta joining the lawsuit? I heard he's mostly out of work now, and available as an advocate.
…we all have a right to sling out poo at Trump from The White House, we demand. Scotus with the flexibility and agility of an Olympic gymnast will somehow agree…
The first amendment does not pertain to lying propogandists.
If CNN can sue for access to the WH press room, then so can I. Freedom of the press is about communicating ideas and information, not about where you work.
Plus, they already stated they can keep up their journalism work from the street.
BS NOW is tantamount to a glossy trashy Neo- Maoist/marxist tabloid. It's Adam Schitt on steroids.
Nothing bad could happen to the mainstream press that I wouldn't like. They actually deserve worse.
In my opinion, with the strident complaints that the news is being shut down and 'Muh Fust Amen-munt !' being proclaimed, the FCC should just pull their broadcast licenses and immediately award them to other, more diversified media companies, on the grounds of promoting the First Amendment.
Will a lawsuit mean that Trump's lawyers/government lawyers will be able to look through the reporters emails to see if they were stupid enough to make a record of their plans to misreport news?
The press constitutionally doesn't mean the press. It means the device, metaphorically the guy operating it. A device a part of which is called the stereotype in English and the cliche in French.
“Peachy+2 said…
The first amendment does not pertain to lying propogandists”
Actually, I think it does. I defer to a retired Con Law professor with a strong First Amendment interest, if one is hanging around. (Duh!) However I do not see how Trump’s order impacts their respective First Amendment rights to publish the news as they view it. Access to White House briefings is a privilege, not a right, and privileges can be withdrawn.
LOL, and I am sure there are plenty of simps here who will go along with him. Oh look.
'***Muh Fust Amen-munt !' being proclaimed, the FCC should just pull their broadcast licenses and immediately award them to other, more diversified media companies, on the grounds of promoting the First Amendment.***
It almost sounds like you are offering a plan to abridge the freedom of the press... naah!
I didn't see the part in the Constitution that conferred on the presidency the role of arbiter of truth. For a man who lies as much as Trump, that's just one more irony from the man who wasn't going to get us into more stupid wars in the Middle East, or did he have his fingers crossed behind his back when he said that, so it wasn't really a lie?
Joe Biden never did anything as perfidious, though! He just did three days a week of the White House's business at his private residence in Rehobeth, where no visitor's logs were kept, and where nobody by the most sycophantic members of the press, and maybe not even them, got past the front door.
Visitor's logs was how Steve McIntyre exposed the role of V.P. Joe Biden's collusion with Ukrainian politicians to create "RussiaGate." Does that surprise anyone?
@rhhardin, I think you’re on the right track, but IMAO the First Amendment refers to publication to a sider audience. In the 18th century only a printing press could do that, but in the 21st century news can be published online, or using TV or radio. In the 22nd century news may be published in a way no one can even imagine today. But I read the First Amendment to mean “publication to a wide audience,” and that would include whatever that 22nd century method might be.
The Press also sued when they lost access to the Pentagon. The DC courts sided with the Press, but the appeals court blocked the ruling.
“I didn't see the part in the Constitution that conferred on the presidency the role of arbiter of truth.”
This was done TO Trump (and other Republicans, and honest scientists) during the Biden administration. It is not being done BY Trump with this order or any other he has issued. Where do you get that? The targets of his order have to work harder to get the news. Hard work can be good for you.
Try it sometime.
The first amendment does not pertain to lying propogandists.
Yes. It does.
This is not a First Amendment case.
I was responding to the comment I quoted. I don't have any major angst with the order itself, just his invocation of "fake news" as a justification. God knows, more than half the news is fake, on all sides.
"the FCC should just pull their broadcast licenses and immediately award them to other, more diversified media companies, on the grounds of promoting the First Amendment."
This. The dying geriatric tv-heavy media companies have decades of proven bias. Take boomer-tube's access and give it to Rantingly, Breitbart and Zerohedge. If the WH gave GatewayPundit full press access you could watch their heads explode just like "Scanners".
If he really wanted to ban all purveyors of fake news, who would print his side of the story?
Why do those 3 have a greater right to be in the briefing room than Joe Schmoe with his Substack or Youtube channel?
Haven't these MSM types advocated to be credentialled by the government so that their smaller competitors can be shut down and they can have the exclusive right to do journalism? And the right to credential is the right to revoke credentials, so they need to make up their minds.
An FCC license is a license to broadcast so the corporation can make money. A license is not a right, it's a granted privilege. This is not a First Amendment case any more than Acosta's butt hurt was.
As William Tecumseh Sherman famously said during the Civil War:
"If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast."
Do cable news orgs need broadcast licenses? I don't think CNN and MS Now hold broadcast licenses. I could be wrong.
In spite of Trump's bluster and Jim Acosta's tears at being called an "enemy of the people," Trump 45 didn't harass the press in the way that some other presidents did.
Past presidents have excluded various outlets from the White House. This, though, is too much at once, the outlets are too prominent, and there's no immediate pretext for banishing them. Plus, the president is edging towards the kind of credibility problem that LBJ and GWB had.
Over the weekend I think a news copter in LA crashed, killing the pilot, the two "reporters" and someone on the ground. Maybe more? My first thought was how sad for the pilot and the victims on the ground, but that I felt the same way towards the press people as they felt towards Charlie Kirk's murder. Whatever that might be. Possibly they were upset by it (not likely... has there been any reporters from "traditional" news sources who were upset by it, outside of possibly the few ones who were actually there in person and were in danger?). But most likely they were very happy he died. So isn't that how we are supposed to react to the deaths of so-called 'journalists?'
As for this lawsuit, can anyone point to the part of the Constitution that says MSNBC has a constitutional right to take someone else's spot in the White House briefing room to spew far left treasonous propaganda? They can print their Pravda stuff without sitting in the front row in the White House just fine.
Big Mike… yes. Agree.
This is about access and not freedom of the press to act as lying propaganda
@Boyd, Althouse.blogspot.com needs White House access.
Trump is the most accessible president in modern history.
Poor ms nbc can still broadcast their non stop bullcrap.
Vance… indeed
It would have been a lot easier for Trump to have said, we are making room for new media and some of the dinosaurs have to move aside, so sorry. CNN is essentially arguing that they have an an perpetuity right to occupy the White House briefing room, which is easily defeated in court absent Trump's "fake news" blather.
Before Trump, America sucked donkey cock. Now we are one of the hottest countries in the world with no fake news!
Pravda isn't usually admitted to White House press briefings. CNN and MS NOW fall in the same category.
In the White House sits a coward who can not explain his poor decisions.
I think its absurd that the POTUS cant do anything without some unelected far-left judge giving him the go-ahead. Its not the 3 Branches of Government "balancing each out" its Judicial Supremacy. But since Trump doesnt want to fight, and Congress secretely approves, nothing is done. Or ever will be done.
Once again , our dear POTUS has given these media outlets that hate his guts , a free gift to jump up on their soapboxes and claim the moral high ground as to being censored and shut out. This is typical Trump acting like a wounded egomaniac he is. FFS Don, just dont call on them at press conferences and leave it at that.
Its absurd to argue the 1st admendment, which simply states the Government can't abridge the freedom of the press, can be twisted into the right of CNN to attend a POTUS news breifing. But what does it matter? All that matters is what one judge thinks. They'll write 100 pages of bullshit and that will be that.
And then it will be up to 3 appeals judges who will do the same thing. The merits of the case are irrelvant. All that matters is the will of the unelected lawyer-king in black robes.
During Crook Joe, cnn asked Biden to kick out Fox News.
"This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes."
Neither I, Chris Mathews, nor any other person in the world has a 1st Amendment right to be in the Oval Office, covering the president.
The President has every right to decide who he will allow in teh White House, and in teh Pentagon.. If the American people don't like his choices, they can vote against him for it.
But until I have the right to use a court to force myself into the Oval Office during a Dem Presidency, no one, no matter who employs them, has such a right
Difference between the Left and right:
Left - The judges are the key to power. We need to fill the bench with Leftwing judges who will carry on our agenda.
Right - That damn Gubmit. Judges who cares about them? We need to cut taxes.
Man child president and a group of followers with FAKE freedom of speech concerns. Give us a break, its as see thru as cellophane. Everything this fellow lies about is FAKE NEWS. Republican stump message, "give us another chance, just because we screwed the whole governing thing up, you'll see, another chance 2 weeks ,no new wars or debt or grift, just one more chance VICE PRESIDENT begging as the country watches the policies OF this group killing the American people "MOURNING IN AMERICA" Ronald Ray Guns had an idea this group clueless :)
@ Ride
100%
If Althouse and Meade wanted a day off the commentors could take it in turns to attend the briefings and ask questions on behalf of Deplorables everywhere.
I'd watch that. Can you imagine? There'd be a tremendous variety of great questions. You'd be a hit, for one. There'd be a lot of smart people in the rotation, some very funny people. I'd love to see RC Ocean in the briefing room. Talk about great TV. Picture the long, open-mouthed, squinty-eyed looking around that would follow a question from RH Hardin. And we have lawyers!
Bob Boyd: and can you imagine watching President Trump or someone like the press secretaries he's had eviscerating Dinky or IEEE?
Maybe IEEE will finally answer what the Democrat plan is to lower fuel prices since they've spent the last decade campaigning on saving the earth from gasoline and why we need to have 40 dollar a gallon fuel and mandatory EVs after we shut down all the power plants.
Someone has Biden Derangement Syndrome
Trump's favorite 2026 campaign target is Biden: nearly 900 mentions and counting ~ Reuters
𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘱 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘑𝘰𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 900 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘪𝘯 2026. 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 1,000 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘪𝘥𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘴.
This doesn't seem like a first-amendment issue; maybe a freedom of information act issue but there's nothing the WH is doing to prevent them from exercising their first amendment rights.
"You'd be a hit, for one."
President Trump, RideSpaceMountain from Althouse here. It's well known that you're a fan of professional wrestling. Could you provide us some background on how wrestling has molded your personal political style? Which professional wrestler has influenced you most? When you bodyslam the MSM, do you prepare your smack-downs in advance or your epic monologues off-the-cuff?
Thank woo very much for your response.
D.D. Driver said...
"Before Trump, America sucked donkey cock. Now we are one of the hottest countries in the world with no fake news!"
I have no doubt D.D. could liven up the press briefings. He'd crush it in the ratings. Nobody would miss CNN.
They raise their hands to ask a question. If the speaker doesn't call on them, they literally can't ask their question.
First Amendment violation! I'll sue!
Legacy JournoListic privilege.
How did 'PRESS' translate from a tool into a protected class of people?
“hanuman_prodigious_leaper said...
How did 'PRESS' translate from a tool into a protected class of people?”
Not so much protected as privileged.
N.b. both the Obama and Biden administrations c hose to exclude some news organizations from the White House. I don't remember that the affected organizations filed any sanctimonious lawsuits about it. As Charlie Kirk was wont to say, "prove me wrong".
“Indefinitely Extended Excursion™️ said...
Someone has Biden Derangement Syndrome”
Normal people are aware that it was Biden who was deranged. (Still is, apparently.)
Just to be clear, this is the same press that cheered when Trump was banned from Twitter.
Just to be clear.
As usual the “news” media is claiming censorship simply for being treated by this administration the exact same way that Obama-Biden-Hillary treated Fox News and any outlet that didn’t kiss their asses daily. Also as usual the left cry and bitch now even as they held their tongues when it was Obama with the whip hand.
Jaq perhaps missed Biden decertifying 440 reporters that his handlers wanted to eject from the pool. I’m not surprised since few teeth were gnashing and few reportettes were huffing in indignation then.
Unlike now.
Remember the Hillary! campaign? She kept reporters assigned to her campaign herded into a pen away from her at every stop. Surprisingly little rending of garments or announcements of litigation accrued to Hillary! for treating reporters like cattle.
Reporters get credentials pulled all the time by every administration. But it's like abortion, which is OK at any time for no reason, but CRIMINAL if your reason is you dont want a girl baby or a gay baby.
Of course Trump is right. The leftmedia is insidious and seditious. Along with public education it has fomented generations of ignoramuses also known as Democrat voters.
Good discussion here.
Fox has joined ABC, NBC, and CBS in boycotting the press room. I like this pushback.
If he tried to prevent them from writing and publishing their work then it would be a violation of the First Amendment.
That's not what he's doing.
Helen Thomas is spinning in her qabr.
"Fox has joined ABC, NBC, and CBS in boycotting the press room."
Silver lining: More space in the press room for people who might actually report the news and not their employer's opinion of what the news should be.
So invite the Washington Free Beacon, Breitbart, and a few other conservative blogs. Why not? Let CNN wail about it.
Are presidents constitutionally barred from giving exclusive interviews or access to particular press outlets?
I presume that the answer is "no," because it has been happening for a long time.
How is this different, from a constitutional perspective?
***
Haven't these MSM types advocated to be credentialled by the government so that their smaller competitors can be shut down and they can have the exclusive right to do journalism?
***
Of course. That's what McCain-Feingold was all about. They wanted to revoke freedom of speech from "corporations", by which they most certainly did not mean the New York Times Corporation or the CBS Corporation, but rather right-leaning non-profit advocacy groups like Turning Point and the NRA. Labor unions and leftist NGOs would have been protected by prosecutorial discretion if not de jure.
'Fox has joined ABC, NBC, and CBS in boycotting the press room. I like this pushback."
No....
Not Fox...
Anyone but Fox!
Jaq perhaps missed Biden decertifying 440 reporters that his handlers wanted to eject from the pool.
Why is this always your "go to'? Has it ever occurred to any of you that the reason many of us HATE Trump is be BECAUSE he treats the presidency the way that Biden, Obama, and Bush treated the presidency. Pointing out that Trump is "just like Biden" is not fucking persuasive unless you think Biden was a good president. Do you?
To be fair Mike (MJB Wolf), this administration hasn't roped off the press the way Hillary's campaign did: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-3153903/Not-rodeo-Video-1992-campaign-shows-Clintons-used-ropes-string-press-before.html
So the leftist Pravda apparatchik ::check notes:: has to make up BS and lie somewhere else...
And the point of this lawsuit is what again...???
I think that Trump is trying to accomplish something other than what he seems to be doing here. I don't know what that is, but it's his M.O.
'Fox has joined ABC, NBC, and CBS in boycotting the press room.’
…as a strategy that reeks of ‘we’re going to try and join the EU’…
I wonder if the SC will rule he has no right to do this, because we are learning he is bad at picking justices.
“Fox has joined ABC, NBC, and CBS in boycotting the press room.”
They have the right to reject the privilege they enjoy [yawn] but do get back to me when their places are given to Breitbart News, Daily Caller, Redstate, etc., etc.
“I have no doubt D.D. could liven up the press briefings. He'd crush it in the ratings.”
Entertaining in a sick sort of way… until the authorities detain DeeDee and he’s burned at the stake as the trannie witch he is.
*defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes."*
Well then it's a good thing that's not what's happening here, isn't it?
Again. They can still spew their bullshit. Nobody is stopping them. Just do it from outside the White House briefing room.
*The first amendment does not pertain to lying propogandists.*
Actually, it does. And they can still be lying propagandists. All day. Every day.
𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘵 𝘷𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴.
Don’t forget the teachers doing sex change surgeries during their lunch break.
I wonder who will be selected as the Federal Judge in this case. If it's a Dem then the judge will order reinstatement. The D.C. Circuit is still controlled by the Dems and they will support the Dem judge. Then it will be up to the Supreme Court, and it's a question how Roberts, Kavanaugh and Coney Barrett will vote.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances...
I.E. The news media and citizens can publish information, opinions, and ideas without government censorship.... does not say they have any kind of right to sit in a WH briefing room.
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