A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s move to ban three news outlets from the White House grounds, saying early Thursday that CNN, MS NOW and Politico must have their access restored.
It’s the latest development in an escalating showdown between Trump and media outlets whose coverage he dislikes. Trump announced he was banning the outlets Friday, assailing what he called “fake news.” More recently, the president has said negative coverage was dangerous for the country.
The outlets argued they were singled out because of the content of their coverage — in other words, viewpoint discrimination — and called the ban a “blatant violation” of the First Amendment.
In an order, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly said the media outlets had met the legal thresholds to obtain a temporary restraining order, in effect for 14 days. He said they were likely to succeed in showing that their White House press passes were revoked without due process.
“This is a high bar, but Plaintiffs have met it,” he wrote.
He called letters that the White House sent the outlets days after banning their reporters to outline objectionable reporting “so vague it hardly does the trick.”
Kelly — whom Trump nominated in 2017 and who ordered a CNN journalist’s access restored in a similar case in 2018 — heard arguments Wednesday and ended the hearing without ruling.
Temporary restraining orders are typically designed to preserve the status quo pending a closer review of the case by the court.
They kind of are. Reporting the facts of events is neither negative nor positive.
The value and impact of those facts is assigned by people based on their own perception.
The coverage is only negative to the administration because they don’t like that the facts of the situation are being shared.
Remember when Ben Shapiro kept spouting “facts don’t care about your feelings”? That was the application of a correct principle in an incorrect manner.
Outside of the editorial and opinion parts, journalism/reporting should be fact-based and present the truth.
When CNN, Politico and MSNBC report the fact-based truth they are presenting the objective reality. The administration assigns the coverage a negative value because it works against their interests. However I, and I assume you and many others, assign it positive value because we are able to stay informed on what is actually occurring.
Not true.
I guess we disagree. C’est la vie.