The White House is starting a new media policy that restricts wire services’ access to the president

 

South China Morning Post 

Trump White House restricts Reuters, Bloomberg access to president in latest media crackdown

The move raises concerns about press freedom and follows the Trump administration’s legal loss to another wire service over its exclusion

Reuters

Published: 11:55am, 16 Apr 2025Updated: 4:34pm, 16 Apr 2025

 

Wire services including Reuters and Bloomberg News will no longer hold a permanent slot in the small pool of reporters who cover US President Donald Trump, the White House said on Tuesday, as it moves to exert greater control over who gets to ask him questions and report on his statements in real time.

WHDH 

The White House is starting a new media policy that restricts wire services’ access to the president
Uploaded: Apr 16, 2025

6 hours ago

 

The Associated Press says that a new White House media policy violates a court order by giving the administration sole discretion over who gets to question President Donald Trump, and the news agency asked a federal judge on Wednesday to enforce that order.

The swift move was in response to a policy issued late Tuesday by the White House, which suffered a courtroom loss last week over The Associated Press’ ability to cover Trump. The plans, the latest attempt by the new administration to control coverage of its activities, sharply curtail the access of three news agencies that serve billions of readers around the world.

Politics

The White House is starting a new media policy that restricts wire services’ access to the president

By  DAVID BAUDER

Updated 7:41 AM PDT, April 16, 2025

The AP filed Wednesday’s motion with U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden, asking for relief “given defendant’s refusal to obey” his order last week. 

• McFadden said the White House had violated the AP’s free speech by banning it from certain presidential events because Trump disagreed with the outlet’s decision not to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

 ...McFadden agreed with AP’s argument that the government cannot punish the news organization for what it says — for exercising its right to free speech. . .

The White House has argued that press access to the president is a privilege, not a right, that it should control — much like it decides to whom Trump gives one-on-one interviews. 

1. In court papers filed last weekend, his lawyers signaled that even with McFadden’s decision, the AP’s days of unchallenged access to open presidential events were over.
2. “No other news organization in the United States receives the level of guaranteed access previously bestowed upon the AP",the administration argued. 
3. “The AP may have grown accustomed to its favored status, but the Constitution does not require that such status endure in perpetuity.”

The administration has appealed McFadden’s ruling, and is scheduled to be in an appeals court on Thursday to argue that ruling should be put on hold until the merits of the case are fully decided, perhaps by the U.S. Supreme Court.

• The administration has not curtailed AP access to Leavitt’s briefings over the past two months. 
• It has blocked access to events in the East Room to White House-credentialed AP reporters — until Tuesday, when one was allowed into an event that involved the Navy football team.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

AP News

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The White House is starting a new media policy that restricts wire services' access to the president 

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