US Justice Department opens antitrust probe into ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC over press pool walkout

The US Justice Department is investigating whether America's five big television networks broke antitrust law when they jointly suspended White House pool coverage, CBS News reported on 10 October. The New York Times first reported the probe.

"Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act," Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington said. The Sherman Act is the US law against cartels and monopolies. It is not clear how the department will argue that a news pool suspension counts as a boycott.

How it started

• Mid-September: President Donald Trump said the White House was revoking press credentials for journalists from CNN, MSNOW and Politico. Letters to each outlet said some of their reporting, including on the White House ballroom, the Iran war and the Republican midterm convention, threatened national security and broke standards of "professionalism and decorum".
• The walkout: the five networks that share the TV pool, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and NBC, suspended pool coverage in solidarity, during Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit. "The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government," they said jointly.
• In court: CNN, MSNOW and Politico sued. US District Judge Timothy Kelly granted a temporary restraining order and their credentials were restored. The order was due to expire on Thursday; Kelly extended it to Tuesday while he decides the case.

The White House still keeps CNN and Politico out of the Oval Office and off Air Force One, CBS said.

What the pool is

The pool is a rotating group of reporters and camera crews who follow the president to events too small for the full press corps, then share pictures and notes with every other outlet. When it stops, the public sees far less of the president's day.

The business angle

CBS and CNN now sit under one owner, Skydance, after the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery closed this week. That gives the antitrust question a sharper edge: regulators are already looking at how concentrated US media has become.

Why readers here follow it

Pakistani audiences watch CNN and the US networks for American politics, and the midterm elections are less than three weeks away. How much access reporters get to the White House shapes the coverage that reaches Pakistan too. For more from the US desk, see Trump's call for a new Ukrainian president and our world news.