Lauren Boebert was a hit at the Fourth Congressional District assembly Friday and landed the top spot on the GOP primary ballot, yet the media still managed to dig up a Republican scandal.
But this one was of their own making.
A veteran political reporter with The Colorado Sun was uninvited to the state assembly the following day, but went anyway and feigned ignorance when she was asked to leave.
From The Sun:
Reporter Sandra Fish, who has covered politics since 1982, received a text at 3:45 a.m. Saturday from a Colorado Republican Party event organizer saying that she was no longer allowed to attend. Fish went anyway to the assembly at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo, where she checked in at the door and received a press credential to enter.
About an hour later, she was told to leave.
Outrage ensued among media outlets and their supporters in the Democrat Party as well as several Republicans who know the reporter and vouched for her old school legitimacy.
The political story of the weekend should have been Boebert’s 40% win. And the party breaking with tradition yet again to endorse a Republican before voters get their chance decide in the GOP’s primary.
Instead, social media was gnashing its teeth and clutching at its pearls declaring Democracy would die any minute. The Fourth Estate is essential to our freedom, don’t ya know?
Ignored was the fact there were numerous other media outlets including Colorado Politics, the Pueblo Chieftain, Colorado Public Radio and the Colorado Times-Recorder covering the event, just not that one journalist.
Williams’ thin skin aside, the fact remains the reporter was told in advance her credentials had been pulled, but she went anyway in the hopes her press pass was still on file and that unknowing volunteers might still give it to her.
Fish got lucky. Her hard press pass was still there.
That is, however, a credential around my neck. #copolitics long live freedom of the press. https://t.co/HrUqOt4MYD
— sandra fish 🐠(@fishnette) April 6, 2024
Fish knew she would be ejected if spotted. And so she was. All the while insisting to security her credentials were legit, even though her own publication acknowledges she knew her press pass had been invalidated.
A Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office deputy has escorted @ColoradoSun journalist Sandra Fish (@fishnette) out of the Colorado GOP Assembly.
Fish received a press pass when she arrived. GOP event staff said she was told not to come since chair says her coverage has been “very unfair” pic.twitter.com/pmtjeJHNtJ
— Anna Lynn Winfrey (@annalynnfrey) April 6, 2024
News organizations know that political party events are not public or government proceedings of elected officials doing official business. The chairman has the authority to determine which members of the media will be credentialed to cover Republican Party events, just as the Democrat chairman will do at their events.
Sun Editor Larry Ryckman’s comparison of the party’s decision to pull one reporter’s credentials to the former Soviet Union was needlessly over-the-top.
“I find it a sad day when politicians want to decide who can and can’t represent the public. I once lived in a place like that. It was called the Soviet Union. We deserve better than that in Colorado.”
As if real journalists are even allowed in communist or socialist countries — Fish would be shot on sight in such a place.
Even in the former communist country journalists aren’t faring so well. Just ask the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich who is still languishing in prison on bogus charges of espionage.
Simmer down people, one press pass was pulled by very polite security, and the reporter is free to rant about it on social media and use her situation as a fundraiser for her employer:
Happy Monday! Bummed the Hawks lost but huge respect for the Gamecocks for a great game and excellent season.
Also about this weekend: It isn’t about me, it’s about democracy. #copolitics 1/13https://t.co/yFgjccGmYq— sandra fish 🐠(@fishnette) April 8, 2024
Democracy did not die in darkness. Carry on.