MagazinAisle

Category: News

  • Did Obama say press is supposed to be skeptical during final news conference?

    Did Obama say press is supposed to be skeptical during final news conference?

    Claim:

    Former President Barack Obama thanked reporters in his final news conference as president, telling them, “You’re not supposed to be sycophants. You’re supposed to be skeptics,” and, “You’re not supposed to be complimentary, but you’re supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power.”

    Rating:

    Correct Attribution

    In September 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his efforts to control how the news media covers him by banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. The outlets sued the Trump administration in response, calling it a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

    Critics of Trump have compared his hostility toward the media with former President Barack Obama’s handling of journalists. For example, one Facebook post (archived) said “that’s how a real man deals with the press” beneath a purported quote from Obama at his last briefing with White House reporters in 2017:

    I have enjoyed working with all of you. That does not, of course, mean that I’ve enjoyed every story that you have filed, but that’s the point of this relationship. You’re not supposed to be sycophants. You’re supposed to be skeptics. You’re supposed to ask me tough questions. You’re not supposed to be complimentary, but you’re supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power.

    Users made similar posts (archived) referencing Obama’s apparent words from that news conference on Instagram (archived) and Threads (archived).

    The quote about the importance of a press critical of the president is correctly attributed to Obama.

    In a video of Obama’s final news conference as president available on the Obama White House YouTube channel, Obama says the quote at 1:48.

    What Obama says matches transcripts kept by the American Presidency Project and the Obama White House archive (emphasis ours):

    But I have enjoyed working with all of you. That does not, of course, mean that I’ve enjoyed every story that you have filed. But that’s the point of this relationship. You’re not supposed to be sycophants, you’re supposed to be skeptics. You’re supposed to ask me tough questions. You’re not supposed to be complimentary, but you’re supposed to cast a critical eye on folks who hold enormous power and make sure that we are accountable to the people who sent us here. 
     
    And you have done that. And you’ve done it, for the most part, in ways that I could appreciate for fairness even if I didn’t always agree with your conclusions. And having you in this building has made this place work better. It keeps us honest. It makes us work harder. It made us think about how we are doing what we do and whether or not we’re able to deliver on what’s been requested by our constituents.

    For further reading, we recently investigated a claim that former President Joe Biden revoked press passes and compared his administration’s changes with Trump’s recent ban.

  • Judge Tosses Donald Trump’s Lawsuit Against Des Moines Register And Pollster Ann Selzer

    Judge Tosses Donald Trump’s Lawsuit Against Des Moines Register And Pollster Ann Selzer

    An Iowa judge has tossed out Donald Trump‘s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer, concluding that the president and his allies “stretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.”

    Trump has sued over Selzer’s pre-election 2024 poll that showed Kamala Harris ahead by three points. As it turned out, Trump won Iowa by more than 13 points. Trump filed suit under a state consumer fraud law, and Rep. Marianne Miller-Meeks (R-IA) later joined his case as another defendant, as did former State Sen. Bradley Zaun.

    Iowa District Court Judge Scott Beattie wrote in his opinion, issued on Wednesday, “Election polling is speech protected by the First Amendment, both because it involves a conversation between a pollster and a voter and because the poll itself is speech. Reporting such a poll during a presidential and congressional election year is speech about a matter of public concern, occupying the summit of the pyramid of First Amendment values. The First Amendment has its fullest and most urgent application to speech uttered during a campaign for political office.”

    Trump claimed that because of the poll, his campaign devoted more resources to the state. But the judge rejected the notion that the poll was commercial speech.

    The judge wrote that the lawsuit “identifies no act any Plaintiff took because of a poll. Roughly seventy-two hours separated the first publication from the close of the election. Within that period, according to reporting the Petition relies upon, President Trump publicly rejected the poll as ‘a fake poll’ conducted by ‘a Trump hater’ who had ‘oversampled, by a lot, Democrats.’ A party who publicly called the poll false did not rely on it, whether or not it was fabricated.”

    A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said that the president planned to take his case to the Iowa Supreme Court “to see it through to a just and winning conclusion.”

    The Des Moines Register and Gannett “knowingly ran a phony poll from the now disgraced Democrat pollster Ann Selzer in a unlawful attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election and to defraud Americans into believing Kamala Harris was winning the state of Iowa and nationwide, mere hours before she lost Iowa and the overall election by huge margins,” the spokesperson said. “This scam was designed to damage President Trump’s dominant campaign in the final days of the race.”

    Selzer and the Register have denied such claims.

    Bob Corn-Revere, chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, who led Selzer’s defense, said in a statement, “We’re pleased that the court recognized what we’ve said all along: This lawsuit was laughable from the beginning and never should have been brought. The First Amendment does not allow anyone in government, least of all the president, to punish people under the banner of ‘fake news.’”

    Selzer said in a statement, “Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome. What we can guarantee is that we will follow the data wherever it leads, even when the results are uncomfortable or unexpected.” She added that she was grateful that the judge’s ruling “recognizes these principles and reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”

  • Unpacking allegations FCC Chair Brendan Carr was in ‘sex trafficking cult’

    Unpacking allegations FCC Chair Brendan Carr was in ‘sex trafficking cult’

    • The claim that Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr was a member of a “child sex trafficking cult” is still under investigation.
    • The allegation stemmed from an investigation The Guardian published on Sept. 22, 2026. According to it, for about 10 years Carr was a member of a Washington, D.C., Alcoholics Anonymous group that former members described as a cult. Some former members claimed the group’s leaders, all older men, sexually exploited them when they were teenage girls. 
    • Snopes found no indication that The Guardian’s reporting was inaccurate or misleading, but cannot rate the claim without independently confirming the reporting. We contacted multiple former Midtown AA members and are actively working to confirm the account of a woman who said she dated Carr while they were both members. We also reached out to the FCC to give Carr the opportunity to comment, but had not heard back.
    • Former members of the Midtown AA group told The Guardian that Carr wasn’t involved in sexual misconduct, describing him as a “victim” of the group and “a safe respite” from the abuse. They also said that the older group leaders’ sexual exploitation of teenage girls was an open secret and normalized within the group.

    In September 2026, The Guardian published an investigation revealing that Brendan Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, was once a member of a Washington, D.C., Alcoholics Anonymous group that some have described as a “cult.” The Guardian also spoke to several former members of the Midtown AA group who claimed they were sexually exploited by older members while they were involved. 

    The claim quickly spread online, where some questioned why the reporting that Carr spent roughly a decade in a “child sex trafficking cult,” was not making headlines. Snopes readers wrote in asking for more information about the claim.

    The Guardian is generally a trustworthy source of information, and we found no indication that the claims made in the article were untrue. However, because we have been unable to independently verify those findings, we are unable to rate the claim. 

    Snopes contacted multiple former Midtown members who have spoken publicly about their experiences as part of reporting this story, including Mandi Pagliarini, who posted a video on her Instagram page saying she was one of The Guardian’s anonymous sources and that she had dated Carr while both were members. We asked Pagliarini to provide primary evidence corroborating her past relationship with Carr and will update this story if we learn more. We also contacted the FCC to ask about Carr’s involvement at Midtown, but had not received a reply at time of publication.

    There is one crucial thing to note that many social media posts neglected to mention — former members did say Carr was a member of Washington, D.C.’s Midtown AA group, but we found no evidence that anybody had directly accused him of misconduct. In fact, multiple former members suggested the opposite. One former member told The Guardian that Carr was a “victim” who was “‘never among’ the predators.” In her Instagram video, Pagliarini, who said she dated Carr for a time, described him as a “warm, sensitive person who was a safe place for me in a horribly abuse, exploitative, imprisoning situation.”

    According to The Guardian, Carr joined the Midtown AA group in 1996 and left sometime around 2005 or 2006, though exactly when was not clear. The group, led by a former Vietnam veteran named “Mike Q,” real name Edward Orlando Quinones, had a reputation as a safe space for teenagers and young adults, not all of whom reported having drinking problems.

    But the group was a “rigidly insular world” under Quinones’ leadership, according to a 2007 story from The Washington Post that was some of the earliest public reporting on the allegations of sexual misconduct. “Ties to family and friends were severed or strained, and the most vulnerable of alcoholics, some suffering from emotional problems, were encouraged to stop taking prescribed medications,” the story said. 

    A former member told The Washington Post that she was “passed around” from Midtown leader to Midtown leader and that her sponsor encouraged her to have sex with Quinones. A different former member described Quinones to The Guardian as the “Epstein of AA,” and said shortly before he died, Quinones confessed to her that he had sex with a 15-year-old.

    However, Quinones never faced charges connected to sexual relations with underage people, according to The Post. The victims who spoke publicly about their experiences in 2007 were 16 and 17 years old at the time of the misconduct, above the age of consent in Maryland. One member told The Guardian she actually recalled overhearing older male members discuss the importance of having sex with teenagers in Maryland and not Virginia, where the age of consent is 18.

    Alcoholics Anonymous is a decentralized organization that does not oversee individual groups. It maintains a list of strongly recommended practices, but former members said Midtown operated differently.

    As examples: AA suggests that new members are paired with older sponsors of the same gender to help them through the recovery process. At Midtown, young teenage girls were often paired with men decades older than them. AA also suggests that new members remain single for a year. Former Midtown members told The Washington Post and Guardian that they were encouraged to date within weeks. 

    According to The Guardian, one former member recalled Carr as “sensitive and desperate for the approval of others.” A former roommate, also a member of Midtown, said both he and Carr had “drunk the Kool-Aid.” A third said he felt the misconduct happening was evident to group members.

    “He knew the deal and he hung around there … I did the same thing. But I should not be the chair of the FCC, either,” one said. 

  • CNN & MS Now Say They Were Denied White House Access To Cover Trump’s State Dinner For Chinese President Xi Jinping

    CNN & MS Now Say They Were Denied White House Access To Cover Trump’s State Dinner For Chinese President Xi Jinping

    UPDATED with MS Now news: Shortly after CNN said that it was denied access to cover the arrivals at the White House State Dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping tonight, MS NOW announced that it, too, had been barred.

    The news came on the same day a federal judge ordered the White House to restore hard passes to the networks’ journalists and those of and Politico.

    The coverage at the North Portico was scheduled to be open to pre-credentialed media, a wider scope of reporters and photographers than the White House press pool.

    CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes said that they were told that their credential to cover the event was only for a camera and audio, not an editorial presence. She had requested that she and her producer attend.

    “Again, no editorial presence, just a camera and audio, which certainly seems like a reaction to President Trump saying that he wanted the CNN coverage of the event,” Holmes said.

    The White House said on its rapid response account that it was a “pre-credentialed event,” and “contrary to what the fake news wants you the believe, they don’t just get to have free rein into every part of the White House, every event, and every press call.”

    The exclusion came after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered that credentials for CNN, Politico and MS NOW be restored, ending Trump’s five-day ban of the outlets from the White House grounds.

    The outlets returned to the White House around noon. Then, hours later, Trump complained that CNN and MS NOW were not covering the state visit.

    Trump claimed that the networks “refused to cover one of the Biggest and Most Beautiful Events to take place in many years, the arrival at the White House of the Highly Respected President of China, Xi Jinping, and his beautiful wife, Madam Peng. The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to ‘TRUMP,’ they refused to be there. That’s why they have such poor Ratings. Tonight’s State Dinner at the White House, for President Xi, will be spectacular!”

    In fact, network correspondents said that they were not able to get access to the White House on Thursday morning. And after the White House pulled CNN from the TV pool on Monday, the other four networks in the pool declined to replace them in the rotation. That has meant a dearth of video images from the White House, as TV pool coverage has yet to resume.

  • Did Pope Leo XIV and Vance trade blows about compassion?

    Did Pope Leo XIV and Vance trade blows about compassion?

    Claim:

    Pope Leo XIV and U.S. Vice President JD Vance publicly criticized each other’s thoughts about compassion.

    Rating:

    False

    In September 2026, a claim circulated alleging Pope Leo XIV and U.S. Vice President JD Vance had a back-and-forth of verbal jabs criticizing each other on the subject of compassion.

    For example, Sept. 23, a Facebook user named Dee Wallace after the “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” actor, shared (archived) an image with photos of Vance and Leo.

    (@DeeWallaceOfficialFB via Facebook)

    According to the post’s caption, Vance responded to one of Leo’s messages, with Vance calling compassion a form of weakness. Leo then supposedly responded with a “fiery” retort:

    BREAKING: J.D. Vance attacks Pope Leo XIV — and gets a FIERY response he won’t soon forget

    J.D. Vance thought he could score political points by criticizing Pope Leo XIV’s message of compassion and inclusion. Instead, the pontiff delivered a response that left the room stunned.

    “You say compassion is weakness,” Pope Leo XIV began. “Then when did caring for the sick become weakness? When did helping the poor become weakness? When did loving our neighbors become weakness?”

    The audience fell silent.

    Then came the line that hit hardest:

    “Can we imagine hatred in heaven? Can we imagine cruelty in heaven? Then why do we tolerate these things on earth?”

    What started as a political attack quickly turned into a powerful moral challenge — and a message that is now spreading far beyond that room.

    Please like and share Pope Leo XIV’s inspiring words!

    Other Facebook users shared the claim. A Snopes reader also asked of the rumor, “Is this a true story?”

    Searches of DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo failed to locate any news media outlets reporting about the alleged discussion, including the purported direct quotes. If the story truly occurred, journalists with reputable outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on it. That was not the case.

    In sum, we found the rumor was fictional and was created with the help of artificial intelligence.

    Some of Vance’s authentic past remarks about Leo possibly served as the inspiration for the fabricated story and fake quotes. In April, Vance, speaking at a rally for the conservative Turning Point USA organization, said he likes when the pope comments on immigration, abortion and matters of war and peace, even when there’s disagreement. He also said he believed the pope should “be careful” when opining about theology.

    Regarding the Facebook account named for Wallace, no evidence credibly confirmed the actor shared the post. The Facebook account displayed the word “official” in the handle — @DeeWallaceOfficialFB — as well as a verification badge supposedly designating authenticity. However, upon selecting the word “Copywriter” near the top of the profile, then clicking “Transparency and privacy policy,” we found an older page name previously defined its purpose as a fan page, as well as that six accounts based in Vietnam served as its only managers. The page’s recent posts all featured some forms of AI and fiction, as well.

    We contacted a representative for Wallace to ask about this matter and will update this article if we receive further details. We were unable to contact the Facebook page via Messenger.

    Researching the AI slop rumor

    This claim about Leo and Vance resembled glurge, which Dictionary.com defines as “stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental.” Creators of such content capitalize on social media users’ willingness to believe and share the made-up stories, profiting from advertising revenue on external websites to which the posts link. (Snopes has previously reported on the business strategy.)

    One of the aforementioned search engine queries found articles from June telling a longer version of the same story. A generic-looking, advertisement-filled WordPress blog that hosted the stories — named only “News And Tips” — included some Vietnamese-language characters and lacked standard signals of authenticity, for example including standard legal documentation including a terms of service and privacy policy, as well as information about a website’s founding.

    One of the blog articles included some text appearing to guide users on how to publish monetized, emotionally charged content. A scan of the story’s text with the artificial intelligence detection tool Pangram displayed the results, “We believe that this entire text is AI,” as well as, “100% of this text is AI.”

    Snopes doesn’t depend solely on AI detection tools, which vary in reliability, and instead considers the tools’ results as one of several data points toward judging an image’s authenticity. For Pangram, we bear in mind the platform’s strong performance in third-party and internal evaluations, as well as criticisms of the tool.

    For further reading, we previously reported about a rumor alleging Leo used AI to write parts of his first encyclical.

  • Is ‘Trump Fuel’ station selling gas for nearly $20 per gallon?

    Is ‘Trump Fuel’ station selling gas for nearly $20 per gallon?

    Claim:

    In September 2026, a Trump-branded gas station opened in Branson, Missouri, selling gasoline for around $20 a gallon.

    Rating:

    Labeled Satire

    A claim that a new, Trump-branded gas station in Branson, Missouri, is selling gasoline at close to $20 a gallon spread online in September 2026. For example, a Sept. 19 Facebook post spreading the claim featured a headline reading “‘Trump Fuel’ Station Turns Heads With Eye-Popping Prices.”

    (Facebook user Thomas Jay Osadsky)

    The story spread amid an extended period of high gas prices across the world as a result of the U.S. war with Iran, and seemingly referenced the Freedom Fuel stations promoted by the Trump administration. Some users appeared to interpret the story about the gas station as true, and Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.

    We first used search engines such as DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo to see whether the claim was true. If the new gas station’s exorbitant prices were real, journalists with reputable news outlets in the local area would have reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. 

    That was not the case. We did not find any credible reporting about a Trump-branded gas station opening in Branson.

    We identified the rumor’s original source, however: the Branson Area Breaking News Facebook Page, which describes its content as satirical and humorous in nature. The page’s bio reads, “We are a world renowned satirical news organization & have received many awards for our breaking news stories!” 

    Branson Area Breaking News first shared the story about the “Trump Fuel” station on Sept. 18. We reached out to the page’s administrators for a comment on the fact that the post was being shared on Facebook by other users with no indication the story was satire. We will update this story if we receive a response.

    If there’s a relatively outlandish claim spreading online about Branson, Missouri, there’s a decent chance it started as a satirical rumor from the Branson Area Breaking News Facebook page. Snopes has covered several claims originating from the page in the past, like fake videos of a flooded street filled with alligators and of the city’s water tower falling down. 

    Since the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use “originated as satire” or “labeled satire” ratings based on creators’ description of their work. It’s your call on whether you agree.

    Sources

    Christensen, Laerke. “Did Branson, Missouri, Water Tower Fall down? Rumor Doesn’t Hold Up.” Snopes, 26 Nov. 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/branson-missouri-water-tower/.

    Geman,     Ben. “Iran War Causes Global Pain at the Pump.” Axios, 19 Sept. 2026, https://www.axios.com/2026/09/19/iran-war-global-pain-fuel-prices.

    Izzo, Jack. “Trump-Endorsed ‘Freedom Fuel’ Gas Stations Exist, despite AI Image He Shared.” Snopes, 8 July 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-freedom-fuel-gas-stations/.

    Winter, Emery. “Say ‘see Ya Later, Alligator’ to Facebook Post of Gators Flooding Missouri Town’s Streets.” Snopes, 27 Mar. 2026, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/branson-alligator-flood/.

  • Does footage show ‘overflow’ crowd at 2026 Minnesota Trump rally? Here’s the real story

    Does footage show ‘overflow’ crowd at 2026 Minnesota Trump rally? Here’s the real story

    Claim:

    A video and a screenshot from that footage authentically show the overflow crowd at a Minnesota rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in September 2026.

    Rating:

    Miscaptioned

    Context

    The footage and the screenshot are both from a pro-Trump rally held in Minnesota in July 2024, not September 2026.

    In September 2026, a video and screenshots from the same footage circulated online purportedly showing supporters at a Minnesota rally for U.S. President Donald Trump that same month.

    Examples of the clip were posted on X and Instagram, and the screengrabs appeared on X and Facebook. The captions were similar, in one instance reading, “This is literally just the OVERFLOW CROWD of people that couldn’t get in to the Minnesota Trump Rally Saturday night!”

    In short, the above footage does show a pro-Trump rally but it was not captured in September 2026. The rally took place in July 2024. As such, the video and screenshots are miscaptioned. 

    Closely analyzing one screengrab shows a sign in the background that reads, “Trump 2024.”

    (X user @DanScavino)

    Google’s reverse image search tool also shows the footage appeared online in 2024.

    Dan Scavino, a member of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, posted the video to X on July 27, 2024, writing: “The overflow crowd here in St. Cloud, Minnesota this evening at the MASSIVE #TrumpRally!”

    The clip appears to be authentic, meaning it shows no signs of being digitally edited or generated using an artificial intelligence tool.

    Photographs from picture archive Getty Images show the same, tall “Trump 2024” signs being used outside the St. Cloud, Minnesota, Trump rally on July 27, 2024.

    Right-wing news outlet The Gateway Pundit also covered the rally in 2024. One attendee reportedly claimed the overflow crowd numbered around 12,000 people. 

    In the 2024 election, Trump lost in Minnesota to Democratic presidential candidate and then-Vice President Kamala Harris, but won overall.

    Snopes has covered numerous stories of images and footage from campaign rallies, some of which are real, some miscaptioned and others that were intended as satire.

    Sources

    ‘Attendees Line up before a Rally Featuring U.S. Republican…’ Getty Images, 27 July 2024, https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/attendees-line-up-before-a-rally-featuring-u-s-republican-news-photo/2163248603.

    Emery, David, and Sean Eifert. “Real Pic of Crowd at Rally for Harris and Walz in Detroit?” Snopes, 12 Aug. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/real-pic-of-crowd-harris-walz-rally-in-detroit/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

    Evon, Dan. “Does This Photo Show a Full Crowd at Trump’s Tulsa Rally?” Snopes, 24 June 2020, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-tulsa-rally-crowd/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

    Liles, Jordan. “Was ‘Official Trump Rally Photo’ Photoshopped To Make Crowd Seem Bigger?” Snopes, 6 July 2022, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-rally-photo-quadruplets/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

    “Massive Overflow Crowd for Trump-Vance Rally in St. Cloud, MN (Video) * The Gateway Pundit * by Kristinn Taylor.” The Gateway Pundit, 28 July 2024, https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/massive-overflow-crowd-trump-vance-rally-st-cloud/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

    “Minnesota President Election 2024 Live Results: Harris Wins.” NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/minnesota-president-results. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

    “Vendors Sell Merchandise before a Rally Featuring U.S. Republican…” Getty Images, 27 July 2024, https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vendors-sell-merchandise-before-a-rally-featuring-u-s-news-photo/2163248723. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

    Wrona, Aleksandra. “Photo Doesn’t Show Massive Crowd at Trump Rally in Woodstock.” Snopes, 31 Oct. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-rally-woodstock/. Accessed 23 Sept. 2026.

  • Trump Ban Temporarily Blocked By Judge, Who Orders CNN, Politico & MS NOW Credentials Restored

    Trump Ban Temporarily Blocked By Judge, Who Orders CNN, Politico & MS NOW Credentials Restored

    The Trump administration must restore press credentials for staffers at CNN, Politico and MS NOW, a federal judge ruled early Thursday morning, delivering a rebuke to the president’s efforts to ban the outlets from the White House grounds.

    U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, granted a temporary restraining order to the media outlets, after they sued Trump and other top administration officials, claiming violations of the First and Fifth amendments. The temporary order is set for a duration of 14 days. Generally, such orders are given to allow the court to consider a case more thoroughly.

    “None of Defendants’ arguments convince the Court that Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on their due process claim,” Kelly wrote in his order.

    Trump has previously sought to revoke the credentials of individual reporters, but his latest ban was a sweeping effort to punish the media for negative reporting on him. Although the government later claimed national security concerns, attorneys for the outlets said that was a post-ban rationalization, violating their due process rights.

    “Defendants offer little to back up their asserted national security interest to justify revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes,” the judge wrote. “So this interest does not tilt these factors in their favor, especially given that Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits.”

    In a hearing on Wednesday, the DOJ pointed to letters sent to the media outlets outlining the reasons for the revocations, and giving them until Friday to challenge the action. But the letters were sent on Tuesday, four days after correspondents were first denied access.

    The judge added that “nothing in the record that predates this suit suggests that the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes was motivated by national security concerns. Certainly, that is not what President Trump said when he announced that he was ‘banning’ Plaintiffs from the White House—instead, he focused on the alleged lack of truthfulness and negativity of Plaintiffs’ reporting.”

    The judge wrote that “even the justifications provided to Plaintiffs after this case was filed are ambiguous about the true purpose of the revocations: while Defendants’ letters to Plaintiffs mention national security concerns, they purport to identify reporting that ‘threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods’ leaving open the possibility that all the stories fall into the later bucket, rather than the former.”

    Even after Wednesday’s hearing, and before the judge’s ruling, the DOJ filed an example of a story it claimed was a “violation of the standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex.” It was an MS NOW report that Trump aides considered the possibility of renaming Ford’s Theatre for the president. Although Trump denied the story and lashed out over it, it had nothing to do with national security.

    Earlier today, a collection of more than four dozen media groups and news outlets urged the judge to rule to end Trump’s ban. They included Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents’ Association and 49 other media organizations. Among those signing on to the brief were the Associated Press, Reuters, NPR, the National Press Club, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox News and the Dow Jones Co.

    After CNN was restricted from the network TV pool rotation at the White House earlier this week, four other networks — ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and Fox News — said that they would suspend their participation in an act of solidarity.

    Theodore Bourtrous Jr., lead attorney representing the networks, said in a statement, “This is a strong ruling vindicating freedom of the press, due process and the rule of law. We greatly appreciate the court’s swift action.”
    Tom Tapp contributed to this report.

  • 12 claims about CNN we’ve investigated

    12 claims about CNN we’ve investigated

    Baio, Ariana. “Donald Trump Scolds CNN Anchor for Covering Him at the UN.” The Guardian, The Guardian, 22 Sept. 2026, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/22/trump-scolds-cnn-anchor-kaitlan-collins-un. Accessed 22 Sept. 2026.

    Izzo, Jack. “Did Biden Revoke More Than 400 Press Passes? How Changes Compare to Trump’s Media Ban.” Snopes, Snopes.com, 21 Sept. 2026, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-press-passes-trump-ban/. Accessed 22 Sept. 2026.

    Noveck, Jocelyn. “CNN, MS NOW, Politico Sue Over Denied White House Access.” AP News, 21 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/trump-ban-ms-now-media-cnn-politico-72f9acf68244ca70e9078d9d3661c722. Accessed 22 Sept. 2026.

    Weissert, Will. “Trump Says He Is Banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico From the White House.” AP News, 18 Sept. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/trump-cnn-msnow-politico-media-bans-bb675679fb10738a51bef90bde6c525a. Accessed 22 Sept. 2026.

  • Greenland’s delegation gets hero’s welcome after signing US-Denmark pact

    Greenland’s delegation gets hero’s welcome after signing US-Denmark pact

    Greenland’s delegation returned home to a hero’s welcome in Nuuk after signing a new pact with the US and Denmark that expands military access to the island, strengthening security and preserving its sovereignty.

    Published On 24 Sep 2026