After weeks of sparring between OAN and the White House Correspondents’ Association, OAN CEO Robert Herring took to Twitter on Tuesday and threatened litigation to ensure “American reporters” have a seat in the room.
“It’s time the White House briefing room allows real, American reporters to have a seat,” Herring tweeted. “The president is in control, not the press corps, and it would benefit him and the American people to make sure freedom of the press isn’t silenced. Do we need to go to court to enforce this?”
It’s time the White House briefing room allows real, American reporters to have a seat. The president is in control, not the press corps, and it would benefit him and the American people to make sure freedom of the press isn’t silenced. Do we need to go to court to enforce this?
— Robert Herring (@RobHerring) April 21, 2020
OAN White House correspondent Chanel Rion made headlines over the past two months after she asked President Trump if he believed the term “Chinese food” was racist. The question created such a stir in the White House press corps that someone left Rion a note ripping her question before OAN was later barred from the briefing room by the WHCA.
Ah, workplace drama… ever so incomplete without that dash of anonymous passive aggression.
Welcome to the basement. pic.twitter.com/s7minUhwpa
— Chanel Rion OAN (@ChanelRion) March 19, 2020
The next day, Rion was reinvited by then-White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham to stand in the hallway outside the briefing room, where she has continued to ask questions of the president daily. Trump has gone out of his way to include Rion in the briefings and often comments on how much he respects her questions.
This is not the first time OAN and Herring have threatened lawsuits for what they perceive to be unfair treatment. In September 2019, Herring filed a $10 million defamation suit against Rachel Maddow and MSNBC after the primetime host called the conservative network “paid Russian propaganda.”
