CNN Takes Heat From Black Journalists Group and White House Press Corps Over Debate Access

Two prominent press organizations claimed that CNN was limiting their access to Thursday’s presidential debate.

The National Association of Black Journalists released a statement on Thursday that said they “received and read reports that local Black Press will not be credentialed” in order to cover the presidential debate hosted by CNN. But the network said that there were Black Media granted credentials “who applied for credentials during the credentialing window.”

Here is part of the statement from NABJ:

No matter the reason the local Black Press was not approved, in regard to guidelines, we are asking CNN to create space to ensure fair and balanced coverage so that all citizens have access to real-time content from the debate.

The Black Press serves as a primary news source for many Black Americans, who are key voices in the voting process. CNN is hosting the debate in a place that is commonly called the “Black Mecca” of the U.S. because of the rich and influential Black culture there. It is critical to ensure Black-owned and operated media are present and have prime placement to record, create, and share content for their audiences.

In a statement provided to Mediaite, a CNN spokesperson had the following explanation:

We are happy to welcome more than 800 journalists from around the world to Atlanta this week to cover the CNN Presidential Debate, including credentialed members from local Black press who applied for credentials during the credentialing window. Information about how to apply for media credentials was made available to the public on May 15 in the announcement and confirmation of a debate.

Unfortunately, due to size and security constraints, we are unable to accommodate additional credential requests following our June 7 application deadline, which came in only in the last few days.

Also denied the access they were seeking was the White House Correspondents’ Association. WHCA president Kelly O’Donnell posted a lengthy statement on Twitter/X explaining that they were not granted in-studio access to “witness the debate in full for the sake of the news cycle, for history and most importantly for the American people.”

O’Donnell did say that one pool reporter from the White House Press Corps was allowed to provide coverage from inside the studio during the commercial break “to briefly observe the setting,” but added, “That is not sufficient in our view and diminishes a core principle of presidential coverage.”

CNN did not immediately provide a separate response when asked about the WHCA requests. Benjamin Mullin and Katie Robertson of The New York Times also reported that CNN did not respond to their questions about granting in-studio access.

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