Media reporter Brian Stelter applauds Fox News for ‘being a real ally’ and boycotting White House pool in support of banned MS NOW, CNN and Politico

CNN media reporter Brian Stelter paid some rare respects to his network’s longtime rival Fox News on Thursday.

Stelter complimented the cable news station for standing behind CNN, MS NOW, and Politico for the past several days during Donald Trump’s press ban.

The journalist made the remarks on-air alongside Dana Bash, as all three outlets reported they had regained access to the White House early on in the afternoon.

A federal judge ordered the White House to reinstate the outlets Thursday morning. 

Bash was first to highlight how Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS had all refused to take part in the president’s pool coverage since Monday.

‘It is so important to underscore the solidarity that the other networks – and even beyond the television networks – that other news organizations have shown with CNN and Politico and MS NOW because everybody understands the stakes,’ Bash said.

The anchor framed the issue as being bigger than any journalistic feud. ‘It’s about the free press writ large,’ she said.

Stelter stepped in to single out the most right-leaning of the networks specifically.

He noted how the issue transcended even party lines.

‘Fox News has been a real ally of CNN and the other major networks this week. And frankly, Dana, I think that’s partly because Fox… it’s thinking about the past and [Barack] Obama.’ 

Obama, during his first term, tried to bar one of the cable news network’s then stars, Major Garrett, from a multipool interview in 2009. The effort was unsuccessful after all the other major networks, ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC, protested.  

A joint statement from the same outlets this time around asserted that ‘No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.’ 

Stelter told Bash that Fox was also likely ‘thinking about what happens when a Democrat is back in the Oval Office, and whether some Democrat would pull a stunt like this.’

‘And then again more broadly, what are we going through in America?’ the journalist continued. He framed the nearly weeklong ban as one of several recent ‘examples of democratic backsliding.’

‘Yes, this is a democracy, but there are times it’s been a healthier democracy. 

‘Backsliding is real, and scholars who study autocratic behavior say they see it happening every day, coming out 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.’

Fox News lead White House correspondent, Jacqui Heinrich, also called out Trump for the ban in her capacity as the president of the White House Correspondents’ Association on Saturday.

Reporters had just been turned away from the White House, confirming their credentials had been revoked. Trump announced the ban in a Truth Social post the day before.

‘Today’s action revoking access for journalists from CNN, POLITICO, and MSNOW violates the First Amendment. 

‘The implications extend beyond these organizations: a standard used to exclude one news outlet because of its coverage could be applied to any outlet in the future,’ Heinrich wrote, calling on the administration ‘to immediately restore’ their access.

Bash, on Thursday, also personally thanked Fox DC Bureau Chief Bryan Boughton, who chairs the television pool that effectively boycotted the ban and sent the email announcing it would stop such coverage.

‘I personally say thank you to him,’ Bash said, framing his actions as ‘a profile in courage and doing what is right.’