Here is one for the annals of editorials we never thought we would need to write: The president of the United States should not ban established and respected news outlets from reporting on his daily doings.

But, in fact, we do.

If Donald Trump won’t listen to this reason, those with thicker skin around said president should gang up on the boss and do all in their power to make him reverse course.

Yes, it’s true that Trump is not the first president to try to manipulate media access for more favorable coverage or even to deny access to outlets the president believes do not offer a fair shake. Yes, it’s true that liberal bias has been known to creep into the reporting at MS NOW and Politico. And we’ll even stipulate that if we were Trump, we’d perhaps tune out of CNN. Or, at least, regularly scream at the screen.

But Trump is free to give interviews and direct his people to deliver enviable administration scoops to more friendly outlets all he wants. He gets to make his own choices. As is his right. And, just like Robert Kraft, the NFL stadium owner who threatened to ban the irritating, attention-seeking rapper Macklemore from his venue unless the singer Ed Sheeran dropped him from his concert, the president now is finding out that denying a platform for someone’s free speech is far more likely to result in amplifying their words rather than silencing them.

We know our conservative readers hate these outlets and are angered by their biases. But we also know that most reasonable Americans understand that the Fox News Channel serves those partisans on the right while MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) serves those partisans on the left, and that CNN and Politico make at least some effort to reflect the views on all sides. More importantly, their trained journalists deliver factual news coverage, especially when the chips are down and thus when they are needed the most. On such occasions, we’ve seen Fox News do the same thing. Plus, these outlets are the ones with the large audiences, which also is relevant to this discussion.

Most reasonable Americans recognize that every president should be covered not just by sycophants but by outlets reflexively critical of such presidential doings, just as the reporters we respect the most follow the facts wherever they lead, however uncomfortable the destination for a reporter’s own political leanings.

Even those who see a liberal bias in CNN coverage understand it hardly offers a constant diet of “far-left propaganda,” which is how Vice President JD Vance characterized the network Monday. We doubt even Vance actually believes that. He’s just backing up the boss.

In this absurd matter, which we cannot imagine will survive the media’s legal challenge announced Monday, there is also the complication of pool reportage: the long-established system wherein outlets who cover the White House rotate their personnel so that the public has eyes on its leader at all times without said leader and his or her staffers being overwhelmed by competing news outlets.

When it comes to the reporting of day-to-day doings, the system generally has worked well. And, as we have read those pool dispatches throughout the Trump administrations, everyone writing them sticks entirely to the basic facts, being mindful of the need for others to use them in a variety of different editorial ways.

Indeed, pool reports are about the least biased political reporting out there.

By banning these outlets, Trump effectively has blown up the pool system, leaving the remaining outlets no real choice in refusing to continue its operation, at least in the short term. Surely, Trump can see that when even Fox News is part of the gaggle of protesting journalists, he has lost Americans, including principled Republicans, who believe in the importance of transparency in our shared democracy.

Trump’s people (come on, Mr. Vance) should find some way for the boss to save face and set about restoring this access protected by the First Amendment; and, if that does not happen, the courts should do the job for him.

Tout de suite.

For heaven’s sake, Mr. President, try and keep your pique in check for the good of the nation you serve.

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