Did Obama ban Fox News from White House briefings? Claim distorts the facts

In September 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump banned three major news outlets — CNN, MSNOW and Politico — from the White House. The outlets subsequently filed a lawsuit accusing the administration of violating the First Amendment. 

Soon after, former President Barack Obama condemned Trump’s ban and speculated about the consequences if he had banned Fox News during his administration. In response, some people online claimed Obama had retaliated against Fox News (archived) in a similar way during his first term. For example, television personality Piers Morgan wrote on X (archived), “Obama did ban Fox, and waged almost constant war against press freedom.” 

(X user @PiersMorgan)

As Snopes previously reported in 2018, while Obama criticized Fox News and snubbed the network’s requests for interviews, he never banned the network outright from the White House. As such, we rate this claim as mostly false. 

In October 2009, a New York Times report (archived) stated Obama’s Treasury Department attempted to exclude Fox News from a roundtable interview with the executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg. Major news networks were sharing a “pool” camera crew for these interviews. According to the report, other networks protested Fox’s exclusion. 

However, a 2009 Talking Points Memo report referred to the situation as a “miscommunication.” The report said:

TPMDC dug into it, and here’s what happened. Feinberg did a pen and pad with reporters to brief them on cutting executive compensation. TV correspondents, as they do with everything, asked to get the comments on camera. Treasury officials agreed and made a list of the networks who asked (Fox was not among them).

But logistically, all of the cameras could not get set up in time or with ease for the Feinberg interview, so they opted for a round robin where the networks use one pool camera. Treasury called the White House pool crew and gave them the list of the networks who’d asked for the interview.

The network pool crew noticed Fox wasn’t on the list, was told that they hadn’t asked and the crew said they needed to be included. Treasury called the White House and asked top Obama adviser Anita Dunn. Dunn said yes and Fox’s Major Garrett was among the correspondents to interview Feinberg last night.

A Treasury spokesperson told Talking Points Memo, “There was no plot to exclude Fox News, and they had the same interview that their competitors did. Much ado about absolutely nothing.” Fox News did conduct the interview with Feinberg. 

The Obama administration didn’t hold back in its criticism of Fox News in the aftermath of the controversy. When questioned by NBC News about the administration’s tone regarding Fox News, Obama said:

We’re going to take the media as it comes. And if media is operating basically as a talk radio format, then that’s one thing, and if it’s operating as a news outlet, then that’s another. But it’s not something I’m losing a lot of sleep over.

Obama spokesperson Josh Earnest reportedly admitted that the White House had demonstrated its “willingness to exclude Fox News” from interviews, but that it had not done so, according to Talking Points Memo. Earnest added, “The president and other high ranking officials and people like Ken Feinberg have done interviews with Fox in the past and will do them in the future.”

In a 2010 interview with Rolling Stone, Obama accused Fox News of focusing more on its point of view than objectivity. “It’s a point of view,” Obama said, “that I think is ultimately destructive for the long-term growth of a country that has a vibrant middle class and is competitive in the world.”

As Snopes previously reported, former Fox News White House correspondent Major Garrett asserted that though there was “never an effort to shut me out of the briefing room,” ongoing tensions between the Obama administration and Fox News hindered his ability to do his job. In a November 2018 interview with The Hill, he said:

The White House would always pull me aside and say “well, really, Major, we’re not at war with you,” and I said “stop talking to me like that because when you’re at war with my network you by definition are questioning and assailing my journalistic credibility and the work I do here every day,” he said. “So don’t tell me it’s not about me, it is about me.”

“Now, they never tried to pull my pass, but they had this sort of arms-length relationship to Fox and tried to demonize it on a daily basis. So that’s another part of American history and journalism in the White House press corps I think at least should be noted at this moment,” he said.

As we previously reported, Fox News’ White House correspondents were called on less during press briefings compared to other major television networks. In September 2009, when Obama made the talk show rounds to talk about healthcare reform, he snubbed “Fox News Sunday” and did not appear on the show until his last year in office in 2016.  

In 2013, The Washington Post reported that Obama’s Department of Justice surveilled a Fox News reporter and obtained a search warrant for his emails while conducting an investigation into national security leaks in 2009. The investigation also looked into other reporters but appeared to specifically target Fox News.

The Obama administration never banned Fox News outright, but no love was lost between the two groups. While Fox News accused the administration of cutting it out of one interview, the administration blamed it on miscommunication and gave the network access while not hiding its disdain for the network. 

For further reading, Snopes previously covered the misrepresented claim that former U.S. President Joe Biden cut reporters from the press pool. 

Snopes’ archives contributed to this report.

Sources