CBS's Jiang warns 'America cannot have state TV' in White House press ban suit

Journal discloses shared Fox Corp ownership with WHCA president’s network

CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang warned against “state TV” during a Fox News Sunday interview about the Trump administration’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

“This is not a tantrum by three media outlets who are upset because they can’t get into the White House or the Oval Office,” Jiang said in the interview with Jacqui Heinrich, the White House Correspondents’ Association president and Fox News senior White House correspondent. “This is a serious concern for the public, because an attack on one outlet is an attack on everyone, no matter where that outlet falls on the political spectrum.”

“America cannot have state TV,” Jiang added. “That’s what makes America America.”

The Journal disclosed in its article that Fox News parent Fox Corp. and Journal parent News Corp. share common ownership — a fact connecting the newspaper’s corporate parent to the network whose correspondent leads the WHCA.

Heinrich said Saturday the administration’s actions were unconstitutional and called on the White House to restore the outlets’ access.

On Monday, CNN, MS NOW and Politico jointly filed suit against the administration after their journalists were denied entry to the White House. In a joint statement, the outlets said they were filing the suit to “protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.” All three outlets said they would defend their First Amendment rights and stood by the work of their journalists.

The lawsuit came as the administration removed CNN from a planned assignment representing a rotating pool of TV journalists who cover the president. A scheduling email from the White House Sunday night did not list a primary TV pool representative for the planned trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Journal reported after reviewing a copy. CNN had been scheduled to fill the slot, a CNN spokeswoman confirmed.

The White House, contacted about the omission, referred to Trump’s remarks Friday about banning CNN, Politico and MS NOW. “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 in a Truth Social post.

On Saturday, according to the Journal, reporters for the three outlets were denied entry to the White House.

The scheduling email listed Hearst — which owns local stations — as the secondary D.C. pool member, and Real America’s Voice as the secondary out-of-town TV crew traveling with the president. Real America’s Voice offers shows including “American Sunrise” and “The Charlie Kirk Show,” according to its website.

CNN is among the major news networks — along with ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC — that rotate coverage of presidential events as part of the TV pool managed by the networks’ editorial leadership.

In his Friday post, Trump criticized the outlets’ coverage and said he planned to ban other outlets in the future.

The administration has subpoenaed journalists, filed defamation lawsuits and restricted press access to some areas of federal buildings including the Pentagon and White House. The president has sued multiple outlets — including the Journal and the New York Times — for defamation. The president and the Justice Department have subpoenaed journalists at various news outlets on at least three occasions this year, a step that was generally considered a last resort used only after federal officials exhausted other avenues to probe unauthorized national security disclosures.

First Amendment lawyers and newsroom leaders have said the administration’s actions during Trump’s second term amount to an attempt to chill journalists and their sources. Trump banned Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office, Air Force One and press pool events early last year, after the AP declined to adopt his preferred terminology for the Gulf of Mexico. The AP sued; the case is ongoing.