Laura Loomer
Role at the time: Founder of Loomered and host of Loomer Unleashed, in a post on X
Statement summary
Laura Loomer said the television networks' joint withdrawal of pool coverage was the kind of concerted action a serious Justice Department antitrust division would examine, and said a lawsuit should have been filed that day.
“This coordinated withdrawal of news coverage is exactly the kind of concerted action a serious antitrust division at the DOJ would examine: whether competing news organizations agreed among themselves to withhold a product the public expects to see.”
Post on Loomer's own X account, published the day the television pool suspended coverage.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
The case asks whether the Justice Department is justified in investigating the television networks' White House press-pool boycott under antitrust law. Nearly three weeks before the inquiry was reported, Loomer says the networks' "coordinated withdrawal of news coverage" is the kind of concerted action the Antitrust Division should examine, and writes: "A lawsuit should have been filed today". That supports an antitrust investigation of the networks, so we labeled it Defended or excused. The closest competing label is Mixed or conditional, since she criticizes the division's leadership; it loses because her complaint is that the department was not acting against the networks, not a reservation about doing so.