News Outlets Accuse Harris Campaign of Exclusion From Events

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Multiple news outlets are accusing the Harris presidential campaign of excluding them from her campaign events.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the second-largest news organization in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, and the New Hampshire Journal have reported being shunned from events in their respective states.

Post-Gazette editorial page editor Brandon McGinley wrote a column last Friday outing Democrat nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign for blocking the newspaper from events since at least Aug. 6, including part of the Democratic National Convention. Further, he wrote the newspaper will be banned from all future Harris campaign events “where they have the ability to control access.”

“It’s a form of political pandering at the expense of core democratic principles — exactly what the campaign claims to be fighting against in the Republican Party,” McGinley wrote.

McGinley wrote that Harris’ campaign is excluding the Post-Gazette at the behest of the union, which has been embroiled in labor action against the paper for nearly two years.

“If political campaigns, not to mention sitting vice presidents, can exclude the press at their discretion, then no one’s freedom to cover government and politics is safe,” McGinley wrote.

In New Hampshire, the Journal said it was denied a press credential to cover a Harris event on Wednesday. Journal Managing Editor Michael Graham told the Washington Examiner that it’s part of a growing trend by the Democratic Party in general.

“At the state level, there is more and more exclusion by Democrats of local press,” Graham said. “Democrats running for governor, running for Congress, if it’s a race where the coverage is all inside the state, they are saying, ‘We don’t need you people.’”

Further, the Harris campaign blocked the press from talking to voters at a July event and prevented press from asking Harris running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, questions at a campaign event in Lancaster County on Wednesday.

“It is never a good idea for government officials or politicians to ban media outlets from covering public events,” DePauw University professor Jeffrey McCall told the Examiner. “That is why it is such an unheard-of practice, rarely implemented. The optics of banning media outlets always come off as looking quite undemocratic and, frankly, rather evasive.”