Several Fox News talking heads blasted President Donald Trump on Friday after he banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House.
“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, while promising, “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
Shortly after, Trump took questions from reporters in the Oval Office, where he suggested that The New York Times and The Washington Post could be the next outlets banned.
“I mean, they’re disgusting,” he said. “I don’t get it. Why would they be? You know, we’re doing so well, and they’ll take the most positive story and make it as negative as possible.”
The move drew widespread and bipartisan condemnation from various media personalities, including several from Fox News on social media.
Fox News White House Correspondent Jacqui Heinrich, president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, issued a statement via the WHCA condemning the move:
The president said it plainly in the Oval Office, describing his own planned action as a “ban on the free press.”
The Constitution protects the freedom of the press from government interference. That protection does not depend on whether the president likes a news organization’s coverage, agrees with its reporting, or approves of the questions its journalists ask.
This is about more than the rights of journalists. It is about the right of the American people to receive a full and independent account of the activities, policies and decisions of whoever occupies the nation’s highest office.
The WHCA stands in defense of our colleagues at CNN, MSNOW, and Politico who are being singled out for doing their jobs.
John Roberts, who co-hosts Fox’s America Reports, said he does not expect the ban to last long:
Obama tried to exclude Fox from certain White House access back in 2009. Lasted about a half a heartbeat. I expect this one will too.
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley ripped the ban as “an assault on long-honored principles of a free press.
Fox News Chief Political Analyst Brit Hume agreed, quote-tweeting Turley to say:
100%. And If he thinks this will lead to more favorable coverage, I think he’s dreaming.
Ari Fleischer, another Fox News contributor and a former White House press secretary, said that while the banned outlets’ coverage of the president has been “biased and unfair,” barring them is not the answer:
I agree with POTUS that several media outlets covering the WH are biased and unfair.
Banning them from the WH is not the solution. Open the pool and the briefing room to conservatives. Challenge liberal reporters. Argue and defeat them.
Don’t ban them.
Or one day they’ll ban us.
And Fox News Political Analyst Guy Benson called Trump’s move “exhausting“:
The WH media ban, even if you hate the targeted outlets, is a bad idea & bad precedent. It’s the sort of thing he does when he doesn’t feel like things are going well politically. Beyond his hardcore loyalist base, it achieves nothing and is exhausting.
And on Friday’s Special Report, Fox News radio political analyst Josh Kraushaar said the ban makes Trump “look angry.”
“Look, I don’t think it’s a good signal of what the president should be focused on,” he said. “He needs to be focused like a laser on the economy, foreign policy with the U.N. meetings next week. And he’s talking about banning media outlets. It’s not good. I don’t think there’s a legal case to be made against it. But certainly politically, it makes him look angry at tough coverage at a time when people are worried about the direction of the country.”
Watch above via Fox News.
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