The Justice Department is investigating five television networks for possible antitrust violations after they pulled White House pool coverage, a move press advocates call intimidation.
Sources told The New York Times on Saturday that the Department of Justice is investigating ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News. The Hill reported the networks had briefly pulled their pool coverage of White House events.
The pull came days after a federal judge halted President Trump’s restriction on CNN, Politico and MS NOW reporting at the White House. A Justice Department spokesperson said a group boycott among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act. That federal law bars rival companies from joining together to restrain trade.
Pool coverage is the shared rotation of cameras and reporters that covers the president so every network gets the same pictures and sound. Walking away from that rotation is not a small scheduling tweak. It is a decision that hits the whole press corps at once.
A Justice Department spokesperson told CNN the television press pool had refused White House events and pointed to federal antitrust law.
"Members of the television press pool have boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,"
The spokesperson said the Antitrust Division is investigating whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws. No charge, indictment, or completed case was described. The question on the table is whether rival networks crossed from coverage judgment into a group boycott.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly halted the restriction on CNN, Politico and MS NOW, then extended the latest temporary injunction. An injunction is a court order that blocks a government action while the case proceeds. Kelly is weighing whether to issue a longer-lasting injunction. The initial pause expired Thursday.
That courtroom fight over White House access now sits beside other Trump court battles. The networks’ coverage pull came after the first halt, not before it.
The restriction was later lifted. CNN and Politico have still been blocked from boarding Air Force One and traveling with the president. An attorney for the media outlets argues that lockout is causing harm to the two companies and must be addressed. The White House access case is separate from the antitrust inquiry, and it is still going.
DOJ attorneys representing Trump wrote in a court filing earlier this month that the president had judged the restricted outlets against the standards required for White House access.
"The President concluded that they have failed to maintain basic minimum ‘standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex, including’ by ‘publishing sensitive or classified information,'"
The White House first argued the restriction answered concerns over professionalism and a failure to follow preset standards. The administration also cited national security concerns and anonymous sourcing. Media outlets pointed to the president’s frequent remarks that the restriction followed cumulative negative coverage, and they called that viewpoint discrimination.
The classified-information claim is a national-security argument, not a ratings argument, and it tracks the same frame as other national-security decisions. The two accounts of motive have not been resolved in court.
Bruce Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, issued a statement attacking the investigation as an attempt to scare the press.
"The decisions news organizations make about coverage are protected by the First Amendment, and summoning antitrust authority, on top of the retaliatory actions the White House has already taken to bar certain outlets, is another and even more brazen attempt to try to intimidate journalists,"
Brown also said the probe appears to be a pretext for seeking records from the networks on how they cover regular White House events during the access fight. He is treating an inquiry into coordinated business conduct as if it were a raid on a newsroom’s opinions.
A coverage decision by one outlet is speech. A group of commercial rivals leaving the same events together is also a market act. The White House is treating special access as a privilege tied to rules, a stance also reflected in Trump conflict-of-interest fights.
The investigation names ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News. That is the television press pool, not the same three outlets in the access case. Politico and MS NOW were named in the White House restriction. They are not named in the Saturday account of the antitrust probe.
CNN sits on both lists. Fox News sits on the investigation list. If this were only a fight with one network, the roster would look different. The Justice Department is looking at a pool-wide pull among competitors who sell ads, chase the same audience, and usually fight one another for scoops.
A single newsroom can skip an event. Five commercial rivals doing it together is the fact pattern the Sherman Act was written to test. Press advocates want that group conduct folded into the First Amendment and taken off the antitrust docket.
The First Amendment protects a newsroom’s call. It does not place a pack of rival networks beyond the competition laws that already govern every other business.
