White House TV pool appears to be back in operation, but situation ‘fluid’

A daily White House press schedule listed CNN as having a pool assignment on Friday (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

The US network video pool for the White House appeared to be back in operation on Friday, although the situation “remains fluid”, according to the media analyst for CNN, one of three outlets that were banned for three days.

A judge temporarily struck down US President Donald Trump’s move to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico on Thursday, but his ruling did not directly address the pool, which consists of five major US broadcast outlets that take turns taking and sharing video.

In a show of solidarity, the other four had declined to participate in the video pool until CNN was reinstated.

CNN was not commenting directly, referring instead to its editorial coverage.

But Brian Stelter, the network’s media analyst, posted on X that the major networks plan to resume TV pool coverage of Trump events on Friday.

He said CNN has a pool assignment at the National Archives with Mr Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, and that the White House had approved the network’s credentials for the event.

A daily White House press schedule listed CBS as one of the pool assignments on Friday.

CNN also had a pool assignment on Friday, and an Associated Press journalist saw the network preparing on site.