The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into five of the nation's largest television networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News — examining whether their coordinated decisions during a court fight over White House press access ran afoul of competition law.
None of the five networks commented on the probe. Press rights organizations, however, responded swiftly and critically.
Bruce Brown, who leads the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told NPR that invoking antitrust authority — layered on top of the White House's existing retaliatory measures against certain outlets — amounts to an even more blatant effort to intimidate journalists.
The investigation follows a series of events that began last month, when President Donald Trump directed aides to bar CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House after criticizing them for what he described as unfairly negative coverage. More than 70 journalists lost their White House press passes as a result. The three news organizations filed suit in federal court seeking restoration of their access, with the Justice Department citing national security grounds for the decision.
The federal judge presiding over the case issued a temporary stay requiring the passes to be restored and has said he will issue a more lasting ruling by Tuesday evening.
Separately, the White House blocked CNN from carrying out its scheduled shifts within the White House television press pool — the same pool that includes the other networks now under scrutiny. The five networks agreed not to fill in for CNN on days the administration blocks the network, though they are making decisions on a day-to-day basis.
Under a longstanding arrangement, pool members share the logistical burden and costs of covering Trump's public appearances in confined settings such as Air Force One. Because of the CNN ban, the networks did not cover an event Trump held with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Justice Department is now reviewing whether that coordination constitutes anti-competitive behavior.
In a statement issued Saturday, the department said: "Members of the television press pool have proudly boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act. The Antitrust Division is investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws."
Four individuals with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed the broad outlines of the investigation, speaking on the condition that they not be identified because they lacked authorization to discuss it publicly.
Michael Dorfman, who teaches Constitutional law at Cornell University's law school, said that even if political motives underlie the president's or the Justice Department's decision to investigate the networks, that alone would not protect them from legal consequences in court. Any such case, he said, would still turn on whether the networks' conduct was reasonable — and in his view, it was.
Dorfman also pointed to what he called another "oddity," writing in an email: "If the networks agreeing not to cover the White House is illegal, why isn't the press pool itself illegal? Presumably the answer is that the kind of cooperation involved in the press pool is necessitated by the limited space in particular venues. But if that's a sufficient justification for the cooperation in coverage, why isn't standing up to protect the free press at least as an important a justification?"
The probe is the latest chapter in a widening conflict between the president and the news media. ABC and its parent company Disney are suing Trump's chief broadcast regulator over a mandate for an immediate review of whether the network should retain all eight of its local TV station licenses — a process that could threaten its bottom line. A judge is weighing whether to intervene.
Trump has repeatedly called for ABC and NBC to lose their broadcast licenses. Disney has characterized the review of the ABC station licenses as retaliation over content Trump dislikes on The View and Jimmy Kimmel Live. Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr has framed the matter as a question of upholding "the public interest." Under Carr, the FCC has also launched investigations of all other major broadcast networks, including NPR, with the exception of the Fox broadcast network, owned by Trump's political ally Rupert Murdoch.
Trump is also pursuing lawsuits against numerous major news organizations in his personal capacity, including the New York Times, BBC News and the Wall Street Journal — the latter also owned by Murdoch but occasionally a target of Trump's ire. ABC and CBS previously settled earlier lawsuits Trump brought against them.
Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told NPR the investigation is "nonsense," adding that while Trump may regard the presidency as a business venture, news outlets defending their constitutional rights has nothing to do with antitrust law.
