Posted on 08/19/2002 10:51:08 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Not only are the Stalinists in the Senate Press Gallery prohibiting WorldNetDaily reporters from exercising their First Amendment rights, they are also lying to their bosses in the U.S. Congress about the reasons for the denial.
Exhibit A is an e-mail to a constituent from Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.
On Aug. 9, Cantwell came up with yet another in a long list of excuses why WorldNetDaily is being shut out of the Capitol.
"To be considered a correspondent with a bon fide news organization, the rules state that the applicant's publication must have at least a (sic) fifty percent original content," she wrote. "WND failed to meet this criterion. In addition, the Standing Committee is not allowed to grant a permanent pass to news organizations that are engaged in paid publicity or promotion work of lobby activities.
"Because WND Editor and CEO Joseph Farah's journalism center owns half of the publication, this is considered a special interest, one that could lead WND to engage in the aforementioned activities and therefore disqualifies WND for a permanent pass," she continues.
Let's start with these lies before we move on to others.
There is no 50 percent original content requirement under the rules of the committee. If there were, few U.S. news organizations would qualify. Just read your own daily newspaper and tell me if 50 percent of the content is locally originated. Having run daily newspapers for 25 years, I can tell you that advertising constitutes roughly 70 percent of successful papers. Of the editorial content, most daily newspapers run between 75 percent and 90 percent news wire content, leaving only a tiny percentage – somewhere between 10 and 25 percent – original content.
Even members of the Standing Committee of Correspondents represent news organizations that publish far less than 50 percent original content – though they may be blissfully ignorant of this fact because none of them have served in executive positions in those publications. They are reporters who have no business experience in their own industry let alone in the New Media.
Now, with regard to "paid publicity" or "promotion work" or "lobby activities," every single major news organization in the United States hires publicists to promote its work. Every single news organization in the United States promote its own work in various ways. So, clearly, if such a restriction existed and were applied uniformly, the press gallery would be empty. And how do the gallery and Sen. Cantwell define "lobby activities"?
I can tell you this: Joseph Farah, the journalism center he founded and WND have never served as lobbyists. Joseph Farah and his organizations have been guilty of practicing journalism for the last 25 years. And that is the only crime for which WorldNetDaily is being punished by the press police. They are jealous. They are envious. They are scared. And they are closing ranks against WND for political reasons.
And, knowingly or unknowingly, Sen. Cantwell is backing them up in this crime against the First Amendment. I strongly suspect she is simply taking her cues from the gallery. But it is certainly interesting that she is getting a slightly different story than is being given to the applicant. Interesting but not surprising – because WorldNetDaily has been given one excuse after another for the denial of its application.
Sen. Cantwell ought to double-check her form letters before they go out because this Aug. 9 e-mail goes on to explain that an appeal hearing on the WorldNetDaily case is scheduled for April 15, 2002 – four months before the date of her e-mail.
The results of that hearing are still officially unknown to WorldNetDaily. We have yet to be notified of the findings of the committee. Our lawyer was told that WorldNetDaily was "provisionally approved" to cover the Capitol, but our ace reporter, Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry was being denied access.
This result is unacceptable. We reject it. And we will continue to pursue justice not just for WorldNetDaily's correspondents but for all independent news agencies unfairly denied access.
We will never give up. We will never surrender. We will never compromise with the Constitution.
We appreciate all the support of WorldNetDaily readers and the handful of media colleagues who have courageously stepped forward to denounce the Stalinists in the press gallery.
If you're interested in communicating with the news media bosses, here are those contacts:
Their bosses are members of the Senate Rules Committee and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Chairman William Roberts works for:
Donna Smith works for:
J. Kuhnhenn works for:
J. Torry works for:
S. Shepherd works for:
One thing I do know is that you can count on getting the truth from these journalists at WND.
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