Public disputes concerning journalists' and news organizations' access to officials, government spaces and information, including credentials, press pools and official responses to coverage.
Published coverage on this page: 1 case · 1 statement. Statements are ordered newest first.
President Trump announced on September 18 that he is excluding CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over their coverage. The outlets cite constitutional protections and say their reporters were turned away September 19; Trump says they publish false stories.
Published
Read the caseLabels describe a response to the linked claim or the action explained in the statement summary. Choose one or more.
1 matching statement
Role at the time: Co-anchor of Fox News Channel's America Reports, in a post on his own X account
Statement summary
In an X post that quote-posts a post by White House Correspondents' Association president Jacqui Heinrich reproducing the association's statement, Fox News co-anchor John Roberts wrote that the Obama administration tried to exclude Fox from certain White House access in 2009, that it "lasted about a half a heartbeat", and that he expects this exclusion will too.
“Obama tried to exclude Fox from certain White House access back in 2009. Lasted about a half a heartbeat. I expect this one will too.”
What this label refers to
The case's fixed reference point is President Trump's announcement on September 18, 2026 that CNN, MS NOW and Politico are banned from the White House because of their coverage, as reaffirmed in the Oval Office that afternoon. Roberts predicts the exclusion will be short-lived, drawing on the 2009 Obama-Fox episode, which downplays its durability and significance without endorsing or denouncing it. The closest competing label is condemns, because he shares a statement criticizing the exclusion. That loses because the words that are Roberts's own express no criticism of the act; the criticism is the quoted WHCA text.
Ward Clark is a contributor to the conservative news and opinion site RedState.
1 case and 1 statement
Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the Republican Governor of Arkansas, elected in 2022, and served as White House press secretary from 2017 to 2019 in President Trump's first administration.
1 case and 1 statement
John Roberts is a co-anchor of Fox News Channel's America Reports and a longtime White House correspondent.
1 case and 1 statement
Guy Benson is a Fox News political analyst, host of The Guy Benson Show and a senior columnist at the Washington Examiner.
1 case and 1 statement
American legal scholar of the First Amendment and constitutional law; the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a professor emeritus at UCLA School of Law. Founder and coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a legal blog hosted at Reason.
1 case and 1 statement
Brit Hume is chief political analyst for Fox News Channel, which he joined in 1996. Before that he spent 23 years at ABC News, including as chief White House correspondent from 1989 through 1996.
1 case and 1 statement
Ari Fleischer is a contributor to Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network and was White House press secretary to President George W. Bush. He is president of the communications firms Ari Fleischer Communications and Ari Fleischer Sports Communications.
1 case and 1 statement
Jonathan Turley is a law professor at George Washington University Law School, a columnist and a legal analyst who writes frequently on prosecutorial conduct and constitutional law.
1 case and 1 statement
JB Pritzker is the Democratic Governor of Illinois, first elected in 2018.
1 case and 1 statement
Managing editor, Townhall.
1 case and 1 statement
United States Senator and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Delaware
1 case and 1 statement
United States representative for California's 42nd Congressional District and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.
1 case and 1 statement
