Former WHCA president on Trump’s press ban: ‘An attack on one outlet is an attack on everyone’

Former White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) president Weijia Jiang on Sunday said President Trump’s ban on CNN, Politico and MS NOW reporters from covering the White House was an “attack” on all other news outlets.

“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, who is also CBS News’s senior White House correspondent, told Fox News’s Jacqui Heinrich on “ Fox News Sunday .” Heinrich is the WHCA’s current president.

“This is a serious concern for the public, because an attack on one outlet is an attack on everyone,” Jiang continued. “No matter where that outlet falls on the political spectrum. It is limiting the amount of information that reporters inside can gather, can excavate, to give back to the public.”

Jiang said that open access cannot be taken away just because the president does not like what is being reported. She also warned that it could set a precedent for future presidents on either side of the aisle.

“Look, every administration, every president hates the press,” she continued. “There should be tension. We wouldn’t be doing our jobs and, neither would they, if there wasn’t that friction.”

The former WHCA president said that covering the White House is an “absolute privilege” and that selecting who covers the president shrinks the viewpoints of who is in the building. It also costs voters the “currency” of information out of relationships reporters develop with White House staff and risks to shake the historical record, Jiang said.

“And all of that context matters in our reporting,” she added. “And that’s what we can’t do from outside the gate. And what you see sometimes might be at the edge of the frame, might not be captured if, for instance, the White House is running its own cameras.”

Heinrich noted that there is no major news outlet run by the federal government and asked what could happen if coverage is no longer independent from the government or the president.

“An America cannot have state TV,” Jiang replied. “That’s what makes America America … because you need independent actors to be able to be the observers. And if the government is only showing you what it wants, then you have to question: What are we missing?”

CNN, Politico and MS NOW announced in a joint statement on Monday that they will sue the administration “to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes.”

Trump, who accused the outlets of “constant” reporting of “FAKE NEWS,” issued the ban on Friday.

That same day, Trump said the White House “is not instituting an assault on the Free Press, something which I cherish.”

“It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control. It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!” he added in a post on Truth Social.

Reporters from the three outlets were denied access to the White House grounds on Saturday and had their passes confiscated by the Secret Service. All three outlets condemned the ban, with several Fox News contributors slamming Trump’s decision.