Guest by post by Bob Unruh
This article originally appeared on WND.com
Told to renew Christian news outlet’s press pass or face ‘appropriate action’
Joe Biden, through his White House staff, has been told to renew a White House press pass for a longtime reporter there, or “appropriate action to not only vindicate his rights but the right of the public to be exposed to a variety of voices” will be pursued.
The letter comes from a legal team representing Matthew Anthony Harper of InterMountain Christian News.
He, along with hundreds of other reporters, was targeted by a change of rules adopted by officials working for Biden.
They now, and uniquely, are demanding that White House reporters be accredited by OTHER organizations in Washington, such as the Supreme Court or Congress, in order to be allowed to routinely cover events at the White House.
A legal team earlier sent a cease-and-desist notice to the White House, and now a letter from William J. Becker Jr. of Freedom X and Paul A. Hoffman of Individual Rights Foundation has told the White House it has “failed to identify a compelling reason for the new policy requirements.”
The request then, is that the decision to revoke Harper’s hard pass is explained before that happens.
“I additionally request that you explain the reason for the requirement that Dr. Harper possess credentials from other institutions in order to be issued a hard pass to cover the White House, his exclusive beat. Barring such explanations, and should a decision be made not to renew Dr. Harper’s hard pass, we will have no choice but to take appropriate action…”
Officials in Biden’s White House have adopted the new policies and they have claimed that they are to align practice with previous administrations. But the letter points out that that’s not accurate.
“To the best of our knowledge, these criteria were not required in at least the past two administrations.”
Further, there appears a bias in the White House changes.
“It seems clear that this extensive overhaul of media access is an effort to exclude all but the most well-known media outlets and to filter out disfavored members of the press. Many of the excluded news organizations align with politically conservative and religious news perspectives. The new policy and the White House’s authoritarian treatment of those who question the official narrative is excluding Americans from critical policy discussions and establishing a monolithic bully pulpit,” the letter warns.
WND reported earlier on Harper’s cease-and-desist letter.
WND itself is a veteran of legal and bureaucratic battles over press access in the nation’s capital, once having threatened to sue all the officials of the Senate Press Gallery and ultimately winning its desired press pass.
It was the Daily Signal, whose reporter Fred Lucas also appears to be impacted, that confirmed 442 fewer reporters will get a hard pass under the new rules.
Copyright 2023 WND News Center
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