Days after President Trump barred reporters from three major news outlets from the White House, the administration has launched a 24/7 YouTube channel promising to put its "biggest moments all in one place." The move has quickly drawn criticism from press-freedom advocates and Democratic lawmakers, some of whom have labeled it "state-run media." "Trump TV" began streaming Monday night with the tagline: The Essentials Station. The channel opened with the president's July 3 speech at Mt. Rushmore, where among other things, he blamed "newcomers to our country" for what he called "a resurgence of the communist menace in our land." The launch followed a Friday post on Trump's Truth Social site announcing that CNN, MS NOW and Politico were being barred from the White House.
The president called the outlets "Fake News" and accused them of reporting "FICTION and LIES" about him, the administration and the United States. On Monday, the three media organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the administration, alleging the government was violating their First Amendment rights of free speech by limiting their access to the White House. They also alleged violations of their Fifth Amendment due process rights, arguing that they were neither given notice of the ban nor afforded an opportunity to challenge the decision.
In a joint statement, Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and CNN pushed back on the White House ban, defending the public's "vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government." "No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting," the statement said. In addition, in a show of unity, media outlets who participate in joint, shared coverage of the White House – including NPR – have said they will not take audio and video from White House events until further notice. But coverage of Trump by other sources, not subject to the boycott, will continue.
In posts on X, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, called the new White House venture "state run" media.
Newsom said it amounted to "truly autocratic behavior from a failed President." An email from a White House official said: "Applying this logic, Mark Kelly's twitter feed is "state run media' for a party of radical socialists. It doesn't make any sense." The dispute is over a broader effort dating back to Trump's first term to control the narrative surrounding his presidency while bypassing a more critical mainstream media, says Stephen Farnsworth, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va. "Over and over again, I think President Trump has really decided what he wants to do is tell the Trump story himself." Farnsworth, author of Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves, says it's difficult to imagine that anyone other than the base will bother to tune in.
"The challenge, I think, for Trump TV is whether you're going to reach anyone other than the already committed Trump voters," he says. Jane Kirtley, an emerita professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, says the White House move is "unprecedented" and presents a concern that a government-controlled media source might function as a direct pipeline to the public in much the same way that state-run television works in other countries. "I think the public has a right to have information that has been subjected to scrutiny and that has been vetted by independent sources like the news media.
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