The US Department of Justice is investigating whether five television networks breached federal competition law by suspending pooled coverage of events involving Donald Trump. According to the BBC, the department has asked ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC and Fox News to hand over correspondence relating to the press pool. The investigation does not mean that a breach of the law has been established.
A press pool is a group of media organisations whose journalists have access to events and usually share their reporting material with other newsrooms. The BBC reports that the five networks suspended this co-operation for several days in September 2026, in response to the Trump administration’s withdrawal of press credentials from CNN, MS Now and Politico reporters.
The Justice Department said the boycott could have breached the Sherman Act, a US antitrust law. A department spokesperson quoted by the BBC said that its antitrust division was investigating whether the media organisations had violated those rules. At the time of the BBC report, the television networks had not commented on the investigation.
Dispute over journalists’ access to the president
According to the BBC, Trump justified excluding CNN, MS Now and Politico by accusing them of publishing false information about his team. That was the president’s allegation, not an established finding about the accuracy of those outlets’ reporting. All three sued the administration, arguing that the restrictions on access violated their rights under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.
The BBC reports that the White House restored access to the three outlets following a judge’s ruling. That dispute concerned journalists’ rights to cover the president’s activities; the current investigation instead focuses on whether the networks’ joint decision to suspend coverage complied with antitrust law.
The BBC published its report on the investigation on 11 October 2026. It did not give a date for the launch of the inquiry or report any finding that the networks had broken the law.
