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Twice during President Trump's first term, his administration tried to prevent a journalist whose work it did not like from reporting at the White House. Twice, judges rejected the moves as unconstitutional and restored the journalists' access. Now the administration is attempting the same move, barring journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House because they had written what the president called "purposefully negative stories."
The new ban is alarming for two reasons: It continues both Mr. Trump's attempt to prevent the free flow of information in American society and his utter disregard of the law.
In his first term, trial courts and an appeals court issued clear rulings blocking the very policy he has again implemented. He has gone ahead anyway, much as he and his aides have flagrantly broken the law across multiple areas during his second term. The administration ignored an order to halt planes carrying deportees to El Salvador; violated nearly 100 court orders during an immigration crackdown in Minnesota; went to war in Iran and impounded funds without congressional approval; used federal power to corruptly enrich Mr. Trump and his allies; and much more.
The latest move also extends Mr. Trump's threats to a free press. We acknowledge our self-interest in this issue, but a free press is indeed vital to a self-governing people. It enables citizens to assess reality in their own democracy. It allows a flowering of different media voices. It holds powerful people to account.
The founders were clear that freedom of the press meant the freedom to say things that the government did not like. As James Madison wrote, "To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression." The Bill of Rights devotes part of its first item -- the First Amendment -- to the idea, barring any laws that abridge "the freedom of speech or of the press."
The rulings against the media bans during Mr. Trump's first term were grounded largely on due process. Judges said that a presidential administration was not obligated to create a press corps with dedicated White House space. Once it did, though, it must run a fair policy through which journalists can become part of the pool. The administration's banning of journalists was instead arbitrary. The judges overturned the bans without even needing to consider the First Amendment principles.
Still, those principles are important here. If a president allowed access only to those reporters who are friendly to the administration, the nation would be poorer for it. The American system of government has endured for more than 250 years partly because our leaders are not autocrats who can censor criticism or monopolize information flow. They are subject to feedback, debate and critique.
The seemingly arcane question of which media organizations have access to the White House fits with a larger pattern of Mr. Trump's attempts to control the media. Officials from his administration have searched the home of a Washington Post reporter and served subpoenas to staff members of The New York Times. He has sued The Wall Street Journal and intimidated ABC News and Paramount into paying tributes to him. His Federal Communications Commission has abused its regulatory power in an effort to shape coverage.
He has impinged on press freedom in ways that no other modern president has. If he now gets away with punishing CNN, MS NOW and Politico, he will be able to credibly threaten other organizations.
Mr. Trump is a master manipulator of public attention, and it is possible he has lashed out at the three organizations to distract from the policy failures -- the war with Iran, tariffs, inflation and more -- that have defined this term. The attacks on the press nonetheless deserve attention. Mr. Trump is once again choosing "error and oppression," to use Madison's formulation, and rejecting "reason and humanity."
ONLINE: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/21/opinion/trump-journalists-ban-white-house.html