The agency said the probe seeks to determine whether Fox News, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC violated antitrust laws. It marks a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s use of its powers against perceived enemies in the press.
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The Justice Department is investigating five major television networks for potential antitrust violations, the department’s top spokesperson said Saturday night, as the Trump administration’s battle with the mainstream press intensifies.
The networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC — had collectively suspended pooled coverage of the White House last month after President Donald Trump banned CNN, along with MS NOW and Politico, from White House grounds. The networks later resumed pool coverage of the president after a federal judge ordered the White House to restore access to the three targeted outlets. Separate tussles have continued over the issue of whether the White House can bar CNN and others from participating in pool coverage on Air Force One.
The White House pool is a cost-sharing system in which the networks rotate the duty of collecting footage of the president’s daily activities and distributing it to other outlets. The pool’s decision to suspend coverage meant that major TV networks did not carry footage of several major White House events, including Trump’s ceremonious airport greeting of President Xi Jinping of China.
“Members of the television press pool have boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” said Justice Department spokesperson Emily Covington, referencing one of the core federal antitrust laws. “The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.”
ABC said that it did not receive notification of the investigation but expects to. Another network has received the notification, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share sensitive details.
The Justice Department’s investigation marks a sharp escalation in the administration’s use of its powers against perceived enemies in the press. In addition to Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico, the Pentagon has fired staff members from the military newspaper Stars and Stripes who have criticized political influence on the outlet. The Defense Department also introduced stringent rules for journalists accessing the Pentagon grounds, which led to a mass walkout of journalists last year and a court battle with the New York Times.
Federal prosecutors have served subpoenas on reporters from several news organizations, including The Washington Post and the New York Times. And in January, federal law enforcement served a search warrant at the home of a Washington Post reporter and seized several of her work and personal devices.
The antitrust investigation was first reported by the New York Times.
CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC did not respond to requests for comment.
Press advocates, however, swiftly condemned the investigation.
“The government should not use antitrust investigations to intimidate news outlets defending press access,” Jose Zamora of the Committee to Protect Journalists wrote on X. “The public’s right to know depends on that access.”
Seth Stern, advocacy chief for the Freedom of the Press Foundation, called the investigation “nonsense.”
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“Depriving Trump of the attention he craves is not a competitive harm,” Stern said, “and in any case, antitrust law has long recognized First Amendment exceptions even when there is anticompetitive impact.”
“This coordinated withdrawal of news coverage is exactly the kind of concerted action a serious antitrust division at the DOJ would examine: whether competing news organizations agreed among themselves to withhold a product the public expects to see,” she tweeted.
It’s not clear whether Loomer played any role in the Justice Department’s decision to launch an investigation. Loomer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Sherman Act dates to 1890 and is one of the pillars of U.S. antitrust law, forming the basis of major cases from the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911 to an unsuccessful effort against Microsoft in the 1990s.
Trump ousted his first pick to head the department’s Antitrust Division, Gail Slater, amid disagreement over how aggressively to enforce the nation’s competition laws. The president has nominated Adam Candeub, general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission, to head the Antitrust Division. He has not yet been confirmed by the Senate.
While Trump has readily criticized and warred with media companies of all stripes, he has close ties with Fox News and upper leadership at Skydance, the newly formed company that owns CBS and CNN.
Trump has hired Fox News personalities for top administration positions, including Pete Hegseth as defense secretary and Sean P. Duffy as transportation secretary. Karoline Leavitt, the former White House press secretary, was announced as a Fox News contributor earlier this week.
Skydance is run by David Ellison, the tech scion whose father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, is a friend of the president’s. The company’s top lawyer is Makan Delrahim, who served as head of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division during Trump’s first term.
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