‘You shouldn’t be covering me’
Hey there. A new CNN poll shows that only 26% of Americans approve of the president’s handling of the war in Iran. He was asked about the poll this morning. That’s where we will start…
When President Trump walked into the UN this morning, he displayed his ignorance about how the American news media works.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins was there, along the ropeline at the entrance, along with a pack of other reporters and photographers. Collins wasn’t with the White House TV pool, since Trump’s ban has blocked CNN from fulfilling its pool responsibilities. Instead, she was credentialed by the UN.
As other reporters shouted questions to Trump, Collins asked, “Two thirds of Americans don’t think the US is winning the war with Iran. When will it end?”
Trump pointed at Collins and said, “I’m surprised CNN is here covering me.”
“The United Nations allowed us in, sir,” Collins said.
“You should not be here covering me,” Trump continued. “You said you weren’t going to cover me. You shouldn’t be covering me.”
Those are three distinct claims, and all three are antithetical to the role of a free press.
For the record, “we never said we were not going to cover the president,” Collins said on air afterward. “We will do our best to cover him each and every day.”
Indeed. In a democracy, journalists will always find ways to ask questions, even if a president doesn’t like it.
“It’s really amazing,” Wolf Blitzer said on air just now: “The United Nations opens up the door to all the news organizations covering the president, who is in New York today for this UN speech, even as the White House bars news organizations from covering the president of the United States.”
In the 10 a.m. Eastern hour, when the president addressed the UN, Fox News and MS NOW decided to show the speech live. CNN decided not to. Blitzer told viewers that CNN was, of course, monitoring the speech for news, and would “bring you any newsworthy moments as they happen.”
And the network did show a clip of Trump’s speech afterward, noting his latest threat to Iran.
A live video feed of the speech was freely available via UNTV, so in other words, no one was doing an end-run around the White House TV pool, which still isn’t providing live feeds of Trump due to the CNN ban.
Throughout the day, I’ll update this CNN article about the overall show of solidarity that we’re seeing right now.
The article has a caveat up top: This feeling might not last. The unity might fizzle out. But at least for a moment, Trump’s ban has spurred remarkable reactions from almost every corner of the White House press corps and beyond.
Not only is the TV pool refusing to let Trump drive a wedge between the major networks, but other regular members of the pool are showing support for the affected outlets in various ways.
The Associated Press chose not to publish photos of Monday’s presidential appearances. NPR announced that it is not airing audio of Trump’s events for the time being. And there have been so many statements of support, it’s been hard to keep track of them all.
“There are individual acts of solidarity” happening, “and a broad interest in understanding how every outlet can do its part to stand up in this moment,” a White House correspondent said on condition of anonymity.
Yesterday I mentioned that Gray TV declined the White House’s invite to fulfill TV pool duties. There were others, too: I’m told that several other outlets were also approached about taking CNN’s seats in the pool, and declined.
Yesterday’s collective action by still photographers amounted to a photo blackout. Sources tell me that the photogs and their employers are reverting to normal today, filing and distributing photos of Trump whenever he’s seen at the UN.
But it’s entirely possible that the photogs will band together again in the future. Part of the point yesterday was to show what’s possible, the sources said.
>> Peter Baker’s headline: “After years as the star of must-see TV, Trump faces the sting of cancellation.” (NYT)
>> David A. Graham: “Censorship can silence anyone, it turns out—even the censor.” (The Atlantic)
“If you’re gonna be a propaganda arm of the left, why would Donald Trump give you special access to his White House?” VP JD Vance said to Newsmax host Greg Kelly last night.
Putting aside the bogus “propaganda” accusation, what’s to stop the next Democratic president from banning Newsmax? Principled conservatives keep making that point.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on NBC’s “Today” this morning and accused unnamed US news outlets of “rooting for Iran.” Craig Melvin asked, “With all due respect, should media outlets be banned because the president doesn’t like their coverage?”
“They’re not banned,” Rubio insisted, prompting Melvin to interject: “They are banned! They’re banned from the White House.”
And then Rubio offered this defense: “We’re not closing CNN. There aren’t a bunch of police officers or soldiers kicking down the doors of MSNBC or MS NOW, whatever it’s called, and arresting people and unplugging it from the grid. They’re just not allowed to work from the workspace at the White House.”
CNN is serving as the pool for Rubio’s trip to New York, and Rubio gave no indication he plans to apply Trump’s ban to the State Department.
Andrew Kirell writes: If you’re at all familiar with MAGA media, you likely know of Right Side Broadcasting Network, the pro-Trump streamer that built a following by carrying his rallies live and unfiltered. My former colleague Jake Lahut observed yesterday that it was stuck “carrying the same White House livestream as everyone else in the conservative media ecosystem, cruddy sound and all.”
RSBN’s usual footage, of course, comes from the networks in the White House TV pool: their camera operators, their audio techs, their work distributed for all to use. Trump’s exclusion of CNN, and the other networks’ refusal to replace CNN, has disrupted that supply.
As Lahut wrote, “There already appears to be an immediate, obvious threat to the business model of the RSBNs and Lindell TVs of the world: to have no live video — or, more accurately, some live video, but with no sound — of President Trump for an extended period of time.”
His takeaway: “For everything the second Trump administration has done to juice the conservative content creation machine, it can’t work well if there’s no video…”
‘Trump TV’ — aka State TV, something almost nobody wants
With the TV pool not operational, the White House is promoting what it calls “Trump TV,” a rebranding of an existing YouTube channel.
Alongside a promo video using clips from “Seinfeld,” “Friends,” and “Family Guy” (someone ask those creators how they feel about this!), the White House X account wrote, “Not every big moment has made it on your TV, now it can,” an obvious reference to the pool action.
But when I checked out the YouTube live stream last night, fewer than 5,000 people were watching. Totally irrelevant.
>> “First, Trump banned independent news from the White House,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote. “Now, he’s launching what is quite literally state-run TV to try drowning out the fact that he and his corrupt administration are failing the American people. This is truly autocratic behavior from a failed President.”
There haven’t been any big new developments about the impending Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger since last night’s special evening edition of Reliable Sources. (Here’s the link if you missed the email.)
But reactions to the controversial state AG settlement deal keep pouring in, with many merger opponents singling out California AG Rob Bonta.
“Bonta sold us out to Trump’s oligarchs,” Cory Doctorow wrote in a blog post this morning. He asserted — with many exclamation marks — that “every! single! one! of these concessions is meaningless bullshit.”
The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr highlighted the skepticism about a CBS News/CNN “editorial independence board” in this story.
And Jane Fonda invoked her late ex-husband Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, in a blistering statement that ended with, “I’m glad Ted isn’t here to witness the destruction of his unique and important creation.”
Advocates for the deal, meanwhile, are expressing relief that Paramount can finally move forward.
Yes, there’s a lot of uncertainty about CNN changing hands and Paramount potentially combining the news network with CBS News. The uncertainty is going to last for a while.
But here’s something I told Anderson Cooper on “360” last night:
“Anderson, I’ve been hearing from a lot of viewers who are concerned about the Paramount takeover, and I understand why. But one thing I’ve learned is that CNN just keeps going no matter what — no matter who’s in charge, no matter who owns the company, no matter where, it just keeps going.”
“And ultimately, viewers and readers will be the judge of this next chapter of CNN, the same way viewers have been the judge since it was founded more than 45 years ago.”
In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour yesterday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he’s “incredibly concerned” with the Paramount–WBD merger and how it will impact the city.
“This is part and parcel of why so many Americans have a diminishing faith in media,” Mamdani said. “And it speaks to a larger corporate consolidation across so many sectors and industries that drive up prices, reduce the, you know, the breadth of opinion that is shared on these platforms, and leave us with a population that look to these things as examples of why they can’t trust what it is that they see on TV,” Mamdani said.
CNN’s Aditi Sangal has more on that here…
“According to preliminary Nielsen data, Sunday night’s episode of ‘60 Minutes’ drew only about 6.5 million total viewers,” the aforementioned Jeremy Barr tweeted this morning. “Final numbers to come later.”
That figure is “slightly better than the same episode last season but obviously down from the season debut,” he added.
The reason for the dip is obvious: CBS did not have an NFL game leading into “60” this week. That’s why the year-over-year comparison is more important than the week-to-week comparison.
>> This morning CBS posted a 28-minute extended version of Ross Douthat’s interview with Patrick Clancy on YouTube…
Heartbreaking news: Jennifer Eckhart, the former Fox News producer who sued former Fox anchor Ed Henry in 2020 for alleged sexual assault, “was found dead at her Florida home over the weekend,” The Independent’s Rhian Lubin reports. The Martin County Sheriff’s Office ruled her death a suicide.
Henry denied the allegations, and Eckhart settled the suit against him in June 2025, one day before the case was set to go to trial. Gretchen Carlson wrote today that Eckhart’s “courage in coming forward will never be forgotten and she undoubtedly inspired so many others.”
>> A huge unveiling in L.A.: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opens to the public today. (CNN)
>> Billy Bush is joining Fox News as a contributor. He’ll make his debut tonight on Jesse Watters’ show. (X)
>> Manopshere influencer Clavicular now faces rape and drugging charges “that could put him in prison for as long as 20 years, and force him to register as a sex offender,” Will Sommer scooped. (The Bulwark)
>> Zelda Williams renewed calls for people to stop using AI to revive her late father, Robin Williams. “If you cannot make your case without making a dead man make it more convincing for you, then tell me: who’s the one manipulating the public thru media now?” (X)
This edition of Reliable Sources was edited by Andrew Kirell and produced with Liam Reilly. Email us your feedback and tips here.