US justice department investigates TV networks over Trump pool coverage — SkimNews
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- The Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News over their coordinated suspension of Trump pool coverage, requesting communications related to the pool.
- The DoJ cited potential violations of the Sherman Act — the federal law barring monopolistic business practices — as the legal basis for the probe.
- Five networks paused their presidential pool coverage for several days after the Trump administration withdrew White House credentials from CNN, MS Now, and Politico.
- Trump had blocked those three outlets from the White House, accusing them of writing "fiction or lies" about his team; a judge later ordered the administration to reinstate their access after the outlets sued on First Amendment grounds.
- The Trump administration took control of the White House press pool in February, ending more than a century of management by the White House Correspondents' Association.
- The administration separately moved to bar Associated Press from limited-access spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One over AP's continued use of "Gulf of Mexico"; AP's lawsuit remains ongoing.
Why it matters: The DoJ's probe reframes a collective press action — networks pulling pool coverage in solidarity with colleagues — as a potential antitrust violation, which could chill future coordinated responses to White House access restrictions. The five networks named (ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, Fox News) represent nearly the entire primetime television news audience, making the requested communications sweep unusually broad.
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