On Thursday as the Trump Administration was defying a court order to allow three major news organization back into the White House, I sent this to Brian Stelter, CNN media reporter, and Eric Deggans, NPR critic at large and journalism professor. They will be speaking at a session October 1, at the Society of Professional Journalists meeting.
Open letter to Eric Deggans and Brian Stelter,
Regarding the temporary restraining order against keeping news outlets out of the White House, and the apparent Trump administration’s defiance:
Am I right? Politico, CNN, and MS Now have not had access to CDC since well before the Covid catastrophe that killed millions of people.
That’s because no news organization has access to CDC or most federal agencies. And the journalists’ newsgathering is intensely controlled by means of bans on any staff speaking to them.
Reporters were kicked out of agencies and all contacts were either blocked or put under massive surveillance years ago.
Also, as the discussion on the risks of AI heats up, reporters have not had access to the agencies most critical to that in many years, correct? That might include the Department of Commerce, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Environmental Protection Agency, etc.
Despite the importance of standing up to the current White House ban, for the media to limit reporting to only a few of the wildfires of information control is a recipe for getting us all burned down.
Below is the letter I drafted to both of you as this was heating up.
Kathryn Foxhall
Thank you for agreeing to lead the General Session at the SPJ meeting in Columbus, October 1.
I’m a longtime health reporter. I was honored to receive the 2021 Wells Key, the highest SPJ member award, for my work against gag rules impacting reporting.
We are now in massive discussion over President’s Trump’s exclusion of CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the White House Correspondents Association and 49 media organizations filed a motion to file an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They said they “know firsthand the importance of physical access by the press to government places and personnel, as well as the need for independence from undue government influence so that journalists can keep the public informed and perform their watchdog role.”
But most of the press just does not mention the exclusion of reporters from most federal agencies. Nor do we explain the government controls placed on journalists by gagging staff from speaking to the press without involvement by the authorities. Nor do we talk about these controls on the state and local levels.
How can this be ethical journalism, to object to one but not the other?
How can it be ethical to not report and openly oppose this repression of information on things that impact the public so seriously?
How can it be ethical to not explain to the public how much is withheld from them?
By not exposing or fighting these controls is the press not inducing authoritarian control and massive abuse of humans?
Can there be any doubt that the Covid pandemic’s severity was caused in part by the lack access to CDC and other agencies and by the lack of accountability reporting on those entities?
We are almost seven years out from the beginning of that catastrophe that killed millions. But the press is not telling the public that that exclusion happened. We are not explaining that we are still not in these agencies and are still controlled by the gag rules, as the world grows closer to the next pandemic every day.
Reporters are still not in CDC, nor in most other federal agencies.
How can anything be more unethical?
NYT Reporter on the Long -term Tightening
On a recent webinar, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a long time New York Times reporter said:
“I think about when I used to call a federal agency, you know, back in like the '90s, you know, you could actually call a scientific expert directly and then we sort of morphed into the field where you would call the press shop, maybe at CDC or NIH, and they would get you a scientific expert.
“And then we kind of moved into the field where you would call the press shop and maybe they would get you a scientific expert or maybe they would just give you an answer by talking to the experts themselves. And now we're in the era where Trump has fired or muzzled a lot of the communications staff and you wind up writing to people at HHS or even the White House and you get some kind of gobble-de-gook that is difficult to understand because they themselves are not expert.”
CMS: “No reporter is entitled to interviews, press calls, or access to internal staff.”
In a January article for STAT, reporter Bob Herman called on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “End the opacity with reporters and the public.”
Herman said, “I recently asked one CMS employee to chat with me for a story, to which they responded the agency doesn’t authorize pretty much any interviews these days. ‘It’s not even worth asking. I know the answer would be no,’ the person said.”
His article also said, “A CMS spokesperson sent the following statement that could not be attributed to anyone: ‘CMS rejects the premise that it lacks transparency. The agency provides comprehensive information through formal communications and written responses, and no reporter is entitled to interviews, press calls, or access to internal staff. CMS will continue to engage through established channels that ensure accuracy, consistency, and transparent communication.’”
Further History on The Great Reporter Control
Please note that a former CDC media relations head has said that these controls grew more intense and more political over several administrations. Also note a veteran FDA reporter's history of being squeezed out from that agency and from contact with insiders. Another history of the great reporter control is in my 2022 CJR article.
Why Isn’t the Press Suing About This?
Unfortunately, these type restraints on reporting have also become common at the state and local levels, as well as public and private organizations.
However, it's important to know that journalists can sue against the restrictions on their own accord, using a legal path written by Frank LoMonte, Co-Chair of the Free Speech and Free Press Committee of the American Bar Association.
Following that lead, there is an important movement of journalists bringing actions in federal courts, with several favorable outcomes.
The City of Miami was sued recently for its policy of forcing reporters to go through media offices to speak to any staff.
Please let SPJ and the rest of us know why major news organizations are silent on the gag rules and the lack of access.
Kathryn Foxhall
