STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In this country, the Justice Department is investigating five major television networks. The Trump administration decided to go after the networks, suggesting they may have broken antitrust laws when they decided to stick together after the president banned one of them - CNN - from the White House. NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik joins us now. David, good morning.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK. What is the case against the TV networks here?
FOLKENFLIK: So let's identify them. It's CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News. They together perform the roles of a TV pool so that they can cover all the president's public appearances, particularly those that are not in very public spaces, so that...
INSKEEP: Right.
FOLKENFLIK: ...It's hard to get to. And so they share that with a lot of another news outlets. The - they agreed not to fill in when the president denied CNN the ability to serve the role of the TV pool. They said, we're not going to do his job for him and do - take CNN's place. And now the Justice Department is accusing them, or saying it's possible they committed illegal collusion for a group boycott. They issued a statement to us this weekend saying members of the television press pool have proudly boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act, which is the core of federal antitrust law.
INSKEEP: The Sherman Act - this is a law from the 1800s about the beef trust or various giant corporations. So now they're trying to turn it against reporters. How does this fit into the administration's ongoing war on the media?
FOLKENFLIK: So this began, essentially, back in mid-September when the administration banned CNN as well as MS NOW and Politico from the White House over news coverage. The - President Trump announced one Friday called - he called it purposefully negative. And so President Trump didn't have the typical media coverage we've come to expect when the others in the TV pool decided not to backfill for CNN during its assigned pool duty days. The networks have sort of softened their stance. Sometimes they've been there. But this is what the administration's really taking issue with, you know, it's at once trying to deny coverage, and at the same time, outraged that the others aren't there to cover the president of the United States when he's doing events.
INSKEEP: OK. So the president has been explicit and quoted and said it in public that he is going after the media 'cause he does not like their coverage and is now using the Justice Department to further his dislike of the coverage. How are people responding to that use of presidential power?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, it's really interesting. Over the weekend, I was in touch with all five networks, and they are not commenting at this time. But you've seen a lot of media advocates speak out. For example, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called it a brazen attempt to intimidate the press, presumably from the kinds of coverage it's been doing. It's particularly brazen to be doing this amid a court battle about access itself. And I got to say, it has to be seen inside the broader fight with the press that the president has engaged in, even just before taking office again, suing a number of major American networks and news outfits.
His chief broadcast regulator investigating all of the major broadcast networks, including NPR, other than Fox broadcasts, which is owned by his ally, Rupert Murdoch. The Justice Department going after their sources and their devices, cutting off all funding for public media - the president pressuring Congress to do that - and cutting off access. You have to see it as sort of one in a multipronged effort to go after the press. He's seeking to reshape them. And, in fact, he's, in some ways, succeeded by the Ellison family, who are political allies going after and acquiring CBS and CNN's parent companies.
INSKEEP: Very briefly, a judge has already leaned against this effort to ban CNN, but there's more court hearings coming on Tuesday. What happens?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, he said that he's going to decide this question of CNN, MS NOW and Politico's access by end of day Tuesday. You've got to imagine that this latest effort over the weekend for the Sherman Act is going to be part of the case before he makes his ruling.
INSKEEP: NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, thanks so much.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
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