Fox News joined eleven other media organizations in announcing its intent to file amicus briefs in support of CNN’s lawsuit against the White House Wednesday.
The Trump administration stripped CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s press pass after a heated press conference last week in which Acosta at first refused to give up the microphone. CNN subsequently sued, alleging the punishment was a violation of Acosta’s First and Fifth Amendment rights.
“Fox News supports CNN in its legal effort to regain its White House reporter’s press credential,” read a statement from network president Jay Wallace. “Secret Service passes for working White House journalists should never be weaponized. While we don’t condone the growing antagonistic tone by both the President and the press at recent media avails, we do support a free press, access and open exchanges for the American people.”
The other organizations who said in a joint statement Wednesday that they will file amicus briefs are the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Washington Post, First Look Media Works, Inc., Gannett, the National Press Club Journalism Institute, NBC News, the New York Times, Politico, the Press Freedom Defense Fund, the E.W. Scripps Company, and the USA Today Network.
“It is imperative that independent journalists have access to the President and his activities, and that journalists are not barred for arbitrary reasons,” the groups wrote. “Our news organizations support the fundamental constitutional right to question this President, or any President.”
CBS News issued a statement of support, saying that stripping credentials is not an “appropriate remedy for a disagreement the White House may have with a particular reporter.”
The Wall Street Journal called the administration’s decision “troubling.”
“It is a journalist’s role to ask hard questions, hold the powerful to account and provide readers with as much information as possible,” the Washington Post said in its statement.
The White House has promised to fight the suit, claiming in a court filing that the president has “broad discretion to regulate access to the White House.”