Judge blocks Trump’s White House media ban, orders access to be

Three days. That’s how long it took a federal judge to start running the White House press pool. U.S. District Judge Tim Kelly has ordered the administration to let CNN, MSNBC, and Politico back into the briefing room, overriding President Trump's decision to restrict their access. You don't have to like those outlets to notice how quickly the judiciary stepped in to micromanage the executive branch's daily operations.

The president’s move was pointed, to be sure. Stripping credentials from reporters who scream about "Russian collusion" and treat every Trump statement as a felony is a reasonable response to a press corps that dropped all pretense of objectivity long ago. But there is a reason the White House has the latitude to choose who gets in the room. The media’s job is to cover the administration, not to tell the president who he must invite to the party. That this was deemed a "constitutional" issue is a stretch, and the judge's ruling sets a shaky precedent for executive authority.

Let’s be honest about what this really is. The legacy media spent four years in a frenzy, and now they are running to the courts to force the administration to keep feeding them. It’s a shame they don’t put that same energy into reporting the truth about the border crisis or the economic fallout from Biden’s spending spree. If they covered those stories with half the vigor they apply to their own access, they wouldn’t need a court order to stay relevant. Access is a privilege, not a fait accompli.

We’d bet money this ruling gets overturned on appeal. The Supreme Court has generally been wary of letting judges act as human resources directors for the White House. The real takeaway here isn't about journalism or the First Amendment; it’s that the media is terrified of being sidelined. They are using the courts to force a seat at the table because they know their audience doesn't trust them enough to keep them there on merit. We support a free press, but that freedom doesn't include a guarantee that the President has to listen to the hecklers every single day.