- The cohosts of The View praised the White House press pool networks for suspending coverage of Donald Trump’s administration in response to the banning of select networks.
- Alyssa Farah Griffin called Trump’s ban of certain networks an attack on the free press and the First Amendment, emphasizing the role of journalists in holding power to account.
- Ana Navarro compared Trump’s actions to those of communist dictators, expressing gratitude for the solidarity shown by other media outlets in response to the press ban.
The cohosts of The View had universal praise to share for the White House press pool networks that banded together to suspend coverage of Donald Trump‘s administration in response to its banning of select networks — namely, CNN, MS Now, and Politico — after the president said he just didn’t want them in his office anymore.
On Monday’s (September 21) live show, Whoopi Goldberg announced the news that the other major news networks had “agreed to pull pool coverage in solidarity,” which Goldberg cheered on, saying, “This is how you do it.”
Goldberg continued, “I think the press has been really good. They’ve gone back time after time after time.”
Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed, calling Trump’s ban of certain networks “outrageous” and “an attack on the free press and the First Amendment.” She then added, “It’s also an attack on the public because journalists exist to hold power to account, to tell the American people the unvarnished, ugly truth and good news of what’s happening.” She also noted that, although the Pentagon blacklisted some journalists from attending briefings, they’ve still gotten major scoops, including, recently, the one about Trump’s second plane being abandoned during an overseas due to security concerns.
She also pointed to her personal experience, having worked for Trump during his first administration, and guessed that Trump will hate being ignored by the other networks. “They’re not going to have live TV coverage of that because all the networks are pulling out of it, and he is going to hate it. He used to ask me to be like, ‘Did the networks carry it? Did the quads carry it?’ He is not going to be happy. They need to reverse this. It’s ridiculous.”
Sunny Hostin then jumped in to say, “Well, the press is called the fourth estate because it was always meant to check power. It’s not the extension or a comms department for the White House.”
Ana Navarro then had a biting comment to add, pointing to the reviewed clip and saying, “You know what Donald Trump said in that clip? He said, ‘I don’t want them in my office.’ Dude, it’s not your office. It’s our office.” She then said that the issue was of grave concern for her, since she fled a dictatorship, adding, “This is what communist dictators do in places like North Korea and Cuba and Nicaragua and Venezuela. They censor and shut down the press because their thin little skin cannot take any criticism.”
Fox News Sides With MS Now & CNN in Battle With Trump Over Press Ban
She then added, “I am so happy to see the solidarity by the other media outlets because that should have happened week one when Donald Trump kicked out the AP for not going along with his insane idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico …. when he berated female reporters, I think everybody should have walked out. When he started calling someone piggy, and he started saying, ‘Kaitlan Collins, why don’t you smile more?’ and when they banned reporters that they didn’t like from the Pentagon — I mean, it’s been one thing after the other after the other. When you don’t stand up to a bully the first time, the bully keeps coming back and trying to get away with more. We all, as Americans, need to stand up to this bully.”
Goldberg then got the last word, saying, “I’ve been kvetching for a while, saying, ‘I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t just, in a block, say, ‘We’re not doing this.’ And I’m so proud that the pool got together in solidarity, including Fox News.”
The View, weekdays, 11a/10c, ABC
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