United States

Washington, September 22, 2026. Three American newsrooms are taking their dispute with the White House to federal court. CNN, MS NOW, and Politico announced on Monday the filing of a complaint in the District of Columbia court, invoking the First Amendment, after their credentials were revoked the previous weekend. The text of the complaint, cited by CNBC, denounces "a direct assault on the First Amendment" and asserts that no official can deprive newsrooms of their access "without notice, without procedure, and without warning." A hearing is set for Wednesday, where the plaintiffs hope to obtain a temporary restraining order.

The president had announced the exclusion on Friday on Truth Social, accusing the three media outlets of having written months of "FAKE NEWS" about him. On Monday, after the announcement of the procedure, he clarified, still on Truth Social, that his administration was not targeting "the free press" but was waging a "war on FAKE NEWS," reports Time. Received in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, he repeated the argument to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who had announced that he would receive "all members of the press" at Gracie Mansion.

The judicial case looks uncertain for the White House: according to The Hill, the president himself expressed concern about the judge assigned to the case, saying, "They drew a great judge, for them." The admission fuels expectations of a rapid decision.

In parallel, the solidarity of competing newsrooms has taken an unprecedented turn. The four other members of the White House television pool — ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC — stopped covering Trump's travels on Monday to protest the exclusion of CNN, reports CNBC. Immediate consequence noted by Axios: the official recording of a presidential press conference on Monday was left without usable footage due to the lack of an independent television pool. The Hill sees this as a rare moment of unity between competing channels. Axios describes the joint legal action as a "historic manifestation of solidarity" between newsrooms that were previously competitors, while Bloomberg anticipates reduced television coverage of the White House as long as the dispute is not resolved.

The White House has responded by launching "Trump TV," a continuous broadcast on YouTube inaugurated with a video of the president at Mount Rushmore, according to The Hill.