How the White House press pool works

President Donald Trump’s decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House has brought renewed attention to the press pool that documents the president’s daily activities. Trump said Friday that he was cutting off the outlets’ access because he objected to their reporting.

The three organizations sued Monday, arguing that the ban violated the First Amendment and their reporters’ due process rights. They asked a court to order the immediate restoration of their press credentials and access, with a hearing set for Wednesday.

Who serves in the pool

The White House press pool rotates daily and includes print, wire and digital reporters, still photographers, and television and radio journalists. Pool members ask questions, write short reports about the president’s words and actions, and distribute their work to the broader White House press corps.

The system is used because places such as the Oval Office and Air Force One cannot hold every journalist assigned to cover the president. Pool reporters can enter smaller White House rooms for meetings, remarks or executive-order signings. A separate traveling pool accompanies the president within the United States and abroad, including on Air Force One.

The pool also creates a contemporaneous historical record. Pool journalists were present in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 and traveled with President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001.

How the access dispute affects coverage

CNN ordinarily participates with CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and Fox News in the television pool. CNN was scheduled to travel to New York for Trump’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly but was removed from the trip after the ban.

The other four networks then suspended the television pool. In a joint statement, the five networks said the public has an interest in accurate, independent information about the government and that an administration should not reject a news organization because it objects to its reporting. CBS News detailed the dispute and the pool’s operation.