Xi Jinping arrives in US to muted coverage as TV networks boycott White House press pool

Bhagyashree Garekar

• Chinese President Xi Jinping’s arrival in the US was met with low-key coverage due to a White House media ban affecting major news outlets.
• President Trump broke protocol by welcoming Xi at a military base, but most Americans saw minimal coverage as networks suspended live telecasts.
• A court ruling on restoring press access to CNN, MS NOW, and Politico is pending, with arguments over constitutional freedoms and national security claims ongoing.

PHILADELPHIA – It was a strange, subdued start to the .

Instead, Cat Zakrzewski, the White House correspondent for The Washington Post, sent out a spare, one-line dispatch to mark the start of the visit.“A plane carrying Xi landed at 5.39pm. It said ‘Air China’, and taxied beyond the jets parked on the tarmac,” she dutifully reported.In dispatches to follow, Zakrzewski noted the US Air Force Band playing fanfare and the US and Chinese national anthems, as well as the flyovers by two B1 bombers as the two presidents stood next to each other at the end of the red carpet, flanked by American and Chinese flags.“People accompanying Xi on the plane exited from the back door,” said the note distributed to newsrooms across the US.At the end of the ceremony, Trump waited while Xi entered a black car. Then, Trump boarded the helicopter that ferried him back to the White House, while Xi proceeded to his hotel in a motorcade, the print dispatch reported.Presenters on CNN and Fox made brief mention of Xi’s arrival, without video, but mostly carried on with discussions on other topics – politics, crime, weather.The New York Times, USA Today and other newspapers reported the news alongside still photographs. The Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal had not reported Xi’s arrival, even 45 minutes later.“Staff from Fox, CBS and NBC are here but not shooting,” noted Zakrzewski.Surprisingly, the ceremony was not telecast in a live-stream on the White House website.The Trump administration has touted the surge in the popularity of the official White House mobile app, claiming that “Americans prefer the source over the spin”.The app had reached No. 1 in the News category on the App Store and climbed into the Top 20 among all apps, according to a White House press statement issued a few hours before Xi arrived.Whether the rest of the trip will get live TV coverage remains uncertain for now.The matter is pending before a court in Washington, US District Judge Timothy Kelly said on Sept 23 that he intends to rule “soon” on whether to grant temporary relief restoring CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s White House access.

The outlets argued in https://www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/xis-arrival-gets-low-key-coverage-amid-white-house-media-ban?ref=top-stories