DOMINANT ANGLE
Ankara takes away from the case less the trial than the unprecedented scene of five rival channels, including Fox News, united against the White House
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
On Friday, September 18, 2026, Trump ordered the withdrawal of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico's accreditation to the White House; their badges were deactivated the following weekend
- 02
On Monday, September 21, 2026, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC jointly suspended pool coverage of the White House, as CNN was supposed to provide this pool rotation
- 03
Fox News Washington Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton notified the presidential press service of the halt to pool filming, while maintaining coverage of Congress
ANALYSIS
Ankara, September 22, 2026. The Turkish press has taken note of the crisis unfolding in Washington, focusing less on the judicial duel and more on the rare scene of a united front between rival channels. On Friday, September 18, 2026, Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of CNN, MS NOW, and Politico's accreditation to the White House, accusing them of practicing "fake news". The following weekend, journalists from the three organizations were denied access to the presidential enclosure, their badges deactivated. On Monday, September 21, 2026, the three media outlets filed a complaint with the federal court in Washington, invoking both the First Amendment, which protects press freedom, and the Fifth, which guarantees regular procedures. In their request, they write that this ban "could not be a more direct attack on the First Amendment, nor a more flagrant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles", demanding the immediate reinstatement of their access.
On the same day, a fact caught particular attention in Ankara: ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC, united in the White House television pool, suspended their coverage of presidential events in solidarity with CNN, even though the channel was supposed to cover the pool that Monday. Bryan Boughton, head of Fox News' Washington bureau, a channel reputed to be close to the Republican camp, notified the presidential press service that "the television pool will no longer film the president's events relevant to the pool", while maintaining coverage of Congress. The five channels justified their action with a common principle: "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate and independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a media outlet because it disputes its coverage." Concrete consequence: no pool images of Trump's trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday, where he was to meet with several foreign leaders.
Trump, for his part, remained inflexible, qualifying the targeted media as a "cancer" and a threat to national security, while assuring on Truth Social that his administration was not targeting "the free press" but was waging a "war against FAKE NEWS".
