The US television channel CNN gets in its litigation with the White House for the lockout of a reporter backing from direct competitor Fox News. His broadcaster will support the lawsuit filed by CNN with a written statement in court, Fox News chief Jay Wallace announced on Wednesday. His broadcaster advocates free media access to government and "open exchange".
While CNN reports primarily critical of US President Donald Trump, the decidedly conservative broadcaster Fox News is generally very friendly towards Trump. The transmitter belonging to the empire of the media mogul Rupert Murdoch is preferred by the president.
But channel head Wallace now said to the dispute over the CNN reporter Jim Acosta, the use of accreditations should never be "used as a weapon". Although its broadcaster does not approve of "the increasing hostile tone between the President and the press in recent media encounters", it supports the freedom of the press.
CNN is backed by numerous other US media organizations, including the New York Times and Washington Post, NBC News and news agencies AP and Bloomberg.
The White House had suspended Acosta's accreditation last week after a tumultuous press conference by the president until further notice. During the event, Trump and Acosta, who have been involved in a feud for a long time, clashed particularly hard.
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CNN then petitioned a federal court in Washington on Tuesday for a restraining order against the White House for Acosta to "get back" its press pass immediately. In its lawsuit, the broadcaster argues that the White House violates the reporter's and CNN's constitutional rights.
However, the White House argued in a statement submitted to the court that it has "broad discretion in the awarding of accreditations". In the admission of media representatives to the White House, this scope was just as large as in the decisions of the President, which journalists give interviews and which he at press conferences give the floor, said in the statement released Wednesday.
Trump's spokeswoman Sarah Sanders had justified the withdrawal of the accreditation for Acosta the day before that it had "physically refused" to Trump's request to leave the microphone and let colleagues also have their say. In the past week, she had justified the measure, however, with the fact that Acosta had touched a White House intern who had tried to take the microphone from him.
This reasoning had been criticized by many as flimsy. Because Acosta touched the intern at best only slightly on the arm. He also apologized immediately to the woman as he held on to the microphone to ask another question.