What’s the White House press pool?

The Justice Department’s decision to investigate the five TV networks that make up the White House television pool for potentially violating antitrust laws has thrust the decades-old press pool system into the spotlight.

Trump barred CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds last month. The TV pool members responded by declining pool coverage for four days initially and then on two subsequent occasions when CNN was blocked from performing its pool duties. That meant there was limited video coverage of Trump for six days, including his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his travel to New York for the United Nations General Assembly.

While the Justice Department investigates, the three news outlets, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, are challenging the Trump policy in federal court in a case with implications for the long-standing system that journalists in the U.S. and around the world rely on to report on the presidency.

The White House press pool is a group of media outlets that share video, editorial information and costs for coverage of high-profile officials and events involving the president anywhere in the world. Under the system, the day’s designated “poolers” represent the wider press corps to document…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business