NPR has suspended airing pool audio from the White House in the wake of President Donald Trump's move to bar three fellow news organizations from the premises. NPR's CEO Katherine Maher addressed the network's decision on Hello Houston on Tuesday.
President Trump cut White House access to CNN, MSNow, and Politico on Friday, saying in a Truth Social post they had covered him unfairly. The three news organizations have jointly filed a lawsuit against Trump for violating their First Amendment rights.
"We stand in solidarity with the free press," Maher said on Hello Houston. "The right to access information about what the president is doing is the right of the American people, and we are here to convey that right and defend it. And so, we have suspended airing pool audio of the president on our air in solidarity with the television stations decisions to also suspend pool until further notice."
ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox News, The New York Times and The Washington Post have suspended their audio and photographic pool coverage of the White House, also until further notice.
Maher noted that a court hearing in the First Amendment lawsuit is scheduled for Wednesday.
"We do expect that there will be a favorable result for the free press," Maher said, "and if so, we will resume coverage on air."
Maher's visit marked her first at Houston Public Media. The last visit to the station by an NPR chief executive was in 2015 by then-CEO Jarl Mohn.
"It is a long-overdue visit," Maher said. "This is one of our major markets for public media, and we have a really dynamic station here in Houston Public Media, and it’s time for me to be able to see what you guys are all doing and learn from that and hopefully bring some of that energy to how we think about the national network."
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