–This is a crisis for Politico/CNN/MSNow and they don't know what to do.

"Pool duties" is one network covering the White House and providing that sound and video news to all the other networks. It save time and money for the networks.

Major TV networks decline White House pool duties

Sep 21 2026 / POLITICO

The nation’s major television networks are declining to participate in White House pool duties moving forward in response to the Trump administration’s decision to bar CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from the White House, Fox News Washington Bureau Chief and current TV pool chair Bryan Boughton wrote in an email to TV pool subscribers.

“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Boughton wrote in the email, obtained by POLITICO. “This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place.”

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Instead, it listed Hearst, which operates local TV stations across the country, as secondary TV crew in Washington, and the pro-TrumpReal America’s Voiceas secondary TV crew for the president’s trip to New York.

It was not immediately clear to what extent those outlets, which are outside the traditional five-network TV pool arrangement, would disseminate their footage more broadly.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/21/networks-white-house-pool-duty-01086044