On Saturday morning, journalists arrived at the White House to do something reporters have done for generations: cover the president of the United States.
Some of them weren't allowed in.
CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein was turned away and her press credential deactivated. MS NOW correspondent Akayla Gardner was denied entry and had her badge confiscated. Politico White House reporter Cheyenne Haslett was also turned away and had her pass taken.
The day before, President Donald Trump had announced that CNN, MS NOW and Politico would be banned from the White House, accusing the organizations of reporting "fake news."
As a journalist, I find what happened Saturday deeply troubling.
But as the editor-in-chief of Raw Story, I also believe it is important to explain why this matters — including to people who don't watch CNN or MS NOW, read Politico or agree with the coverage produced by any of these organizations.
Freedom of the press isn't a privilege reserved for journalists whose reporting the government likes.
In fact, that's when the principle matters least.
The real test comes when journalists publish stories that anger powerful people.
Presidents have every right to criticize news coverage. They can dispute stories. They can call reporters unfair. They can provide evidence they believe proves journalists wrong. And journalists, like everyone else, can make mistakes and should correct them when they do.
But government access cannot become a reward for favorable coverage.
Because once that line is crossed, the question facing a reporter changes.
They should be asking: Is this true? Is this important? Do our readers need to know this?
Instead, the question becomes: If we publish this, will we still be allowed in the room tomorrow?
That is a question no journalist should have to consider.
This is why independent media matters
At Raw Story, we spend every day reporting on people and institutions with enormous power.
Our reporters dig through court records and campaign finance disclosures. They investigate political organizations and the money behind them. They talk to sources. They attend hearings. They ask questions politicians would sometimes rather not answer.
Sometimes our reporting makes people angry.
That's part of the job.
Our obligation isn't to make the people we cover comfortable. It is to pursue facts, verify them and give our readers the information they need to understand what their government and other powerful institutions are doing.
That principle doesn't change depending on who occupies the White House.
And it shouldn't.
There is another kind of independence
There's something else I want Raw Story readers to understand.
Editorial independence also depends on financial independence.
Investigative reporting is expensive. Experienced journalists are expensive. Sending reporters into the field, fighting for public records, reviewing thousands of pages of documents and giving journalists the time to uncover stories that may take weeks or months all cost money.
Independent news organizations don't have unlimited resources.
We have something more valuable: readers who believe this work matters.
Raw Story has been publishing independent journalism for more than two decades. We've survived enormous changes to the media industry because readers have continued to show up.
They read us.
They share our reporting.
They subscribe.
And they donate.
That support means the people we cover don't get to decide whether Raw Story survives.
Our readers do.
We're going to keep reporting
I don't know where the dispute over White House access goes from here. The affected news organizations have said they intend to defend their First Amendment rights, and legal challenges may follow.
But I know what Raw Story will do.
We'll keep reporting.
We'll keep investigating.
We'll keep asking questions.
We'll correct ourselves when we get something wrong, and we won't change accurate reporting simply because someone powerful doesn't like it.
Because journalism that requires the approval of the government isn't independent journalism.
And right now, independent journalism needs people willing to stand behind it.
If you value a press that answers to its readers rather than the people it covers, I hope you'll stand with us.
