BY THE TIME you read this column, it is entirely possible that CNN, MS Now and Politico, the three news outlets that were banned by Trump last Friday, will be back at their White House media perches, lobbing questions and being ignored or excoriated as fake news/dumb/corrupt/lousy journalists who are (in the case of female journalists only) ‘ugly on the inside and out’.

It’s also possible that Trump will have pulled the plug on the entire White House TV pool, casting out Fox News, NBC, CBS and ABC for having the temerity to stand up for their CNN colleagues by refusing to provide camera and sound crews for Trump’s events on Monday.

After almost a decade of belittling its members and whittling away its First Amendment rights, the White House press corps has finally grown the semblance of a spine with its first unified defiance of the White House authoritarian creep that has long since progressed to a gallop.

The TV pool’s refusal to step into the breach caused by Trump’s banning of CNN, the fifth member of the White House TV pool, was followed by a refusal by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Associated Press and other outlets to publish photographs of Trump’s scheduled appearances on Monday. His meeting with New York Mayor Zohran Mandami, his visit to the UN General Assembly and his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron were subjected to a visual blackout, although smaller entities picked up the slack.

A moment of unintentional comedic gold transpired when the White House comms team attempted to plug the gap by providing their own footage of Trump cutting the ribbon around his brand-new White House helicopter pad. But someone forgot to wire him for sound; as a result, the footage is accompanied by incoherent emissions from the US President.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The cynic in me says the White House press corps’ united stance stems from the near-certain knowledge that........

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