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

• 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 much-anticipated state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the United States.

In times less ordinary, the arrival of Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on an overcast Sept 23 evening would have played live across TV screens in the US, with excited commentary on the weather, the clothes worn by the leaders and their spouses, how they smiled, and how long the handshake lasted.

Not the least because the reception Xi was accorded was itself unusual; US presidents typically meet foreign leaders at the White House, not at the airport as soon as they touch down. But President Donald Trump broke protocol to personally welcome Xi at Joint Base Andrews, a military airfield close to Washington. 

Most Americans saw none of that.

Major US TV networks had suspended live filming and broadcasts of presidential events since Sept 21, in protest against the Trump administration’s decision to deny White House access to CNN, MS NOW and Politico over their unfavourable news coverage.

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 short mentions 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.

After a day during which it seemed that the absence of live TV coverage would diminish the visit, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must restore White House access to the three news outlets.

In the early hours of Sept 24, a judge of the US District Court in Washington granted a 14-day restraining order and told the White House to “immediately return, reinstate, and restore” the press credentials held by employees of CNN, Politico and MS NOW.

The news outlets were likely to succeed in their claim that the White House had violated their constitutional due process rights by revoking their press credentials without advance notice or an opportunity to respond, the judge said.

He also rejected, for now, the administration’s argument that revoking the outlets’ press credentials was necessary to protect national security.

The US Justice Department had argued that White House access was a privilege rather than a constitutional entitlement and urged the judge to reject emergency relief.

The government also said that the ban has been imposed on national security grounds, claiming that the outlets had “trafficking in verifiable falsehoods about national security and other issues, and publishing sensitive or classified information”.