President Donald Trump’s decision Friday to ban CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House triggered immediate accusations that he was attacking press freedom.
But the backlash quickly turned into a broader fight over consistency, as Trump supporters and conservative commentators pointed to past disputes involving some of the same political and media figures now condemning him.
Obama’s Fox News example resurfaces
Former President Barack Obama criticized Trump’s 2025 move to remove credentials from members of the White House press corps during an April 3, 2025, appearance at Hamilton College, according to Headline USA.
“Imagine if I had done any of this stuff. Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps,” Obama said, according to the report.
Obama added, “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors. I say this not on a partisan basis.”
Conservatives responded by pointing to an October 2009 clash in which the Obama administration attempted to exclude Fox News reporters from a Treasury Department briefing. The effort was reversed after other journalists objected, according to the source article.
The Obama White House later escalated its criticism of Fox News. Then-White House Communications Director Anita Dunn said Fox operated “as the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.”
“They take their talking points, put them on the air; take their opposition research, put them on the air,” Dunn said, according to the report. “And that’s fine. But let’s not pretend they’re a news network the way CNN is … We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent.”
Pritzker’s criticism meets a reporter’s lawsuit history
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker also criticized Trump’s action, calling it “yet another attack on the First Amendment.”
“Donald Trump can’t hide from his failing record, so he’s banning journalists he doesn’t like to keep you from hearing about it,” Pritzker said, according to Headline USA.
Veteran journalist Amy Jacobson responded by citing her own dispute with Pritzker during the COVID era. Jacobson said Pritzker took away her press pass after he objected to her questioning, and said she regained access with help from the Liberty Justice Center.
According to the report, Jacobson had covered claims that Pritzker’s family traveled to the governor’s vacation home in Wisconsin while he was enforcing a statewide stay-at-home order. Pritzker defended barring her from briefings by arguing she was no longer acting as a reporter because she had attended an anti-lockdown rally.
“That is not a reporter,” Pritzker said of Jacobson at the time, according to Salem Media, her then-employer. “Once upon a time she was a reporter, but she proved that she is no longer a reporter.”
Pritzker later removed the ban after Jacobson filed a federal lawsuit, according to Headline USA.
Stelter’s past Fox News segment draws scrutiny
CNN Chief Media Analyst Brian Stelter also condemned Trump’s ban, saying, “People around the world recognize this for what it is: Yet another Trump move straight out of the autocratic playbook.”
Conservatives then circulated a 2021 CNN segment in which Stelter discussed whether then-President Joe Biden should remove Fox News from the White House press pool, according to the source article.
The renewed attention underscored the central dispute surrounding Trump’s decision: whether removing access from disfavored outlets is an unacceptable attack on press freedom, or whether some of Trump’s loudest critics previously tolerated similar treatment when aimed at conservative media.
Headline USA reported that neither Pritzker’s press office nor Stelter responded to its requests for comment before publication.
