DOMINANT ANGLE
Quito sees in this episode a showdown between the US executive and its own editorial boards, where the launch of "Trump TV" with a three-month-old speech is just as significant as the veto opposed to CNN, MS NOW and Politico.
Dominant angle identified — does not reflect unanimity of this country’s media
KEY POINTS
- 01
On Saturday, September 19, MS NOW had its credentials confiscated, CNN teams were denied entry, and a Politico reporter was briefly detained.
- 02
ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC suspended their participation in the "pool" system after the White House prevented CNN, whose turn it was, from covering a trip.
- 03
Trump TV launched on Monday, September 21, at 7:00 p.m. with the speech delivered on July 3 at Mount Rushmore, nearly three months before its broadcast.
ANALYSIS
Quito, Wednesday, September 23, 2026. The Ecuadorian press is detailing the escalation between Donald Trump and the American editorial offices he has banned from the White House. El Comercio recalls that the president accuses CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of spreading "false news" about his administration and that he warned that other media outlets could suffer the same fate. On Saturday, September 19, the measure became tangible: MS NOW journalists had their accreditation confiscated during a security check, CNN teams were unable to enter the White House grounds, and a Politico reporter was detained before recovering her pass later. The White House Correspondents Association described the veto as a "prohibition on a free press," recalling the protections that the First Amendment grants to the practice of journalism. The three media outlets announced that they would defend their rights, even as the dispute continued during Trump's trip to New York for the high-level week of the United Nations General Assembly.
El Universo is emphasizing another front, that of the "pool" system that shares images of presidential trips between competing channels. CNN was participating, but since its exclusion, ABC, CBS, Fox News, and NBC have suspended their participation, after the White House prevented CNN, whose turn it was, from covering the event. It is in this climate that the new platform of the presidency, Trump TV, went on the air on Monday, September 21, at 7:00 p.m. local time. The choice of the first program intrigues the Ecuadorian press as much as the veto itself: rather than a new presidential event, the channel opened with a speech delivered three months earlier, on July 3, at Mount Rushmore, for the 250th anniversary of American independence, in which Trump stated that "America will never be a communist country" and called on his supporters to defend American identity and character. El Universo sees this as a way to offer, from the first day, a direct alternative to the coverage of traditional media rather than simply rebroadcasting a new event. The confrontation, the local press summarizes, now opposes two logics: conditional press access based on editorial line, and an unprecedented boycott between historically rival channels.
