The Justice Department is investigating ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News under antitrust law after the networks briefly and jointly suspended televised coverage of President Trump following his September ban of CNN, Politico and MS NOW from White House grounds. DOJ claims the networks' joint statement amounted to an illegal 'group boycott' under the 1890 Sherman Act.
Legal experts including Loyola Law School's Aaron Caplan called the probe plainly retaliatory, and Reporters Committee president Bruce Brown said the antitrust framing 'appears to be a pretext' for obtaining the networks' internal records on how they cover the president. The originally banned outlets have already sued over the ban itself, alleging First Amendment retaliation.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.
✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK
Five networks that agree on almost nothing stopped filming for a spell, and the Justice Department reached for a law written in 1890 to call it a conspiracy. That's like accusing the whole church choir of price fixing because they all walked out when the preacher locked the doors. If the government wanted to know how newsrooms cover the president, it could try watching, which is free and doesn't need a subpoena.
