On eve of GA-6 vote, Democrat Ossoff bans conservative Washington Free Beacon from covering campaign event

I'm going to be consistent on my position when it comes to the First Amendment and the press: The press has the freedom to say whatever it wants (unless it's libelous or slanderous, of course). It doesn't have the right to be given access or accommodation by those it seeks to cover. Generally I think that if someone wants to cover you as part of a news story, you're better off working with them than refusing, but there are times when a news outlet is so patently biased and unfair - as happened last summer with the Trump campaign and the Washington Post - there's no point in trying to work with them. You can criticize it as a media relations strategy, but it wasn't a violation of the First Amendment.

So it's also not a First Amendment violation for the campaign of Democrat Jon Ossoff to ban the conservative Washington Free Beacon from covering a campaign event, which is exactly what happened last night. The difference between the two situations, though, is that we knew why Trump revoked the Post's credentials. No one knows why Ossoff banned the Free Beacon, unless it was simply the fact that it's a conservative site:

The Washington Free Beacon was told by Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff's campaign that it was not welcome to cover remarks that he was scheduled to deliver to supporters on the night before Tuesday's special election. The Free Beacon was approached immediately upon entering Ossoff's Monday night event by Ossoff spokesperson Sacha Haworth, who proceeded to escort the reporter out of the event. Asked why the Free Beacon was being restricted from covering the event, Haworth said, "Thank you very much for your interest in covering our race." Asked why the Free Beacon wasn't being allowed to cover the race despite its interest, Haworth said, "Thank you very much for your interest in covering our race." The Ossoff campaign has previously declined to provide the Free Beacon with information on the campaign's schedule.

Numerous reporters gathered inside the campaign office for Ossoff's speech, during which he said that "politics does not have to be about … division," according to the Associated Press, one of the outlets granted access to the event. It is unclear whether any other outlets were restricted from covering the event. Ossoff's campaign declined to answer whether any other outlets had been barred.

We're all familiar by now with the left's attempt to paint conservative-leaning sites as "fake news." In their minds, they come off as inconsistent if they tar sites like the Free Beacon as fake and yet treat them as worthy of press credentials for their events. But the "fake news" label doesn't fit the Free Beacon. It's engages in good reporting and offers thoughtful analysis that is many steps above the mindless partisanship you find on some of the cheap knockoff sites out there. Indeed, one of the things the Beacon does especially well is dig down and report things going on in Washington that the mainstream press either ignores or doesn't understand the significance of.

If the Ossoff campaign has a specific complaint with the Free Beacon - whether it feels it was covering it unfairly or just making things up as the Post was doing in its coverage of Trump - it would be reasonable for them to provide a reason for its actions. Absent one, this feels like little more than an attempt by a Democrat politician to close off access to all but friendly media outlets. This is not a surprising tactic coming from Ossoff. I've already discussed in detail the impression I have of the left's new wonder boy, and you can draw your own conclusions. Anyone who reads my work regularly knows I have little use for the press and I have no problem with officeholders attacking them when they're dishonest or unfair. That doesn't mean you ban them from attending your events just because they come from the other ideological side. Even the Trump White House doesn't do that. But Jon Ossoff does. Vote wisely, GA-6. And for those of you with spiritual discernment, I'll just leave this right here:

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