Obama’s Gotcha Backfires – Receipts Drop

Man in suit looking to the side, identified as Rob Nabors — Photo: Drop of Light / Shutterstock

Barack Obama mocked President Trump this week for banning three news outlets from the White House — but Obama’s own administration tried to freeze out Fox News back in 2009.

Quick Take

President Trump banned CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House on September 18 over what he called “FAKE NEWS” coverage.
Obama mocked the move, asking what would have happened “if I had said, ‘you know what, FOX News, get out of here.'”
In 2009, the Obama Treasury Department tried to cut Fox News out of a multi-network interview pool, and internal emails showed staff wanted to “skip Fox.”
Legal experts warn Trump’s ban may not survive court challenges tied to a 1977 precedent protecting press access.

Trump Cuts Off Three Networks Over Coverage

President Trump announced on Truth Social on September 18 that he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. He said the outlets kept publishing “purposely negative stories” and should not be allowed to “write fake stories” about his presidency. By Saturday morning, reporters from those outlets were turned away at the gates, and CNN’s Betsy Klein had her press pass seized.

Trump did not hide his reasoning. He accused the outlets of reporting “FICTION and LIES” about the president and warned that more bans could follow. This fits a pattern from his first term, when the White House similarly restricted the Associated Press over its refusal to use the term “Gulf of America,” a fight that spent over a year working through federal courts.

Obama Jumps In With a Loaded Question

Barack Obama wasted no time weighing in. Speaking publicly, he said he was “trying to think what would have happened if I had said, you know what, FOX News, get out of here.” He called that idea “unimaginable”. The line was clearly meant to paint Trump as uniquely hostile to a free press, and it spread fast across cable news and social media.

There’s just one problem with Obama’s gotcha moment: it already happened on his watch. In October 2009, the Obama Treasury Department tried to exclude a Fox News reporter from a multi-network interview pool during a fight over the network’s coverage. The exclusion only got reversed after other outlets, including CNN, objected on Fox’s behalf.

The Receipts on Obama’s Fox News Fight

Emails later uncovered by Judicial Watch showed a White House staffer writing, “we’d prefer if you skip Fox please,” during the 2009 dispute. Fact-checkers have rightly noted the exclusion was temporary and tied to one interview pool, not a blanket, permanent ban like the one Trump ordered against CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Still, the Obama White House later admitted in writing that it had “demonstrated our willingness to exclude Fox News from newsmaking interviews”.

That admission matters. Obama can argue his episode was smaller in scope, but he cannot honestly claim it never happened. His own press office used government access as leverage against a network it saw as unfriendly — the same basic instinct he now says is “unimaginable” when Trump does it. Pointing fingers works a lot better when your own hands are clean.

What the Courts Say About Banning the Press

None of this means Trump’s ban is legally bulletproof. A 1977 federal appeals court ruling, Sherrill v. Knight, held that once the White House opens its press facilities to credentialed journalists, it cannot deny access arbitrarily or for less than compelling reasons. Legal experts told the New York Times that tying the ban directly to the content of the outlets’ reporting looks like “textbook viewpoint discrimination” that could struggle in court.

That legal standard cuts both ways, and it’s worth remembering the AP fight from earlier in Trump’s term ended up in the courts for over a year, with judges split on how far a president can go. Conservatives who value free speech should want consistent rules — not outrage that only fires up when the other side gets targeted. Obama’s selective memory doesn’t change what actually happened in 2009, and it doesn’t settle whether Trump’s ban holds up in court now.