Starting in 2016, thanks to the relentless “fake news” drumbeat led by former President Donald Trump, the media was subjected to verbal attacks with increased frequency. Trump’s press conferences usually devolved into rants against CNN or whatever reporter he believed had wronged him that day.
It was a tense time for journalists, but at least we had each other’s backs, right?
Well, apparently that depends.
I recall a routine press conference at the start of the 2017 legislative session in Olympia. Freelance journalist John Stang asked GOP leaders when they intended to release their plan to fund the state’s education system.
“That’s none of your business,” Senator Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) sniped in response. “You’ll be the last to know.”
The exchange was stunning.
Several reporters in the room came to Stang’s defense. Rachel La Corte of the Associated Press put Schoesler in his place.
“Hold on a second,” she said. “He’s a reporter representing his readers. It is his business – it is all of our business. I just think that was an unnecessary response, senator.”
Schoesler was universally condemned across the Washington media landscape.
I admonished Schoesler on Twitter, writing: “Hey Senator, wake up. That is precisely our business.”
The Seattle Times Editorial Board issued a strong rebuke of Stang’s treatment.
“The fact that Schoesler was dismissive of a freelance reporter is just as troubling as if he had dismissed a similar question from The Seattle Times or The Associated Press,” the paper wrote. “Politicians should never pick and choose between reporters or play favorites.”
Schoesler later apologized and the united front served to put other politicians on notice: mess with one of us, you mess with us all.
It’s why I was disappointed last week when Seattle’s largest media outlets let King County Executive Dow Constantine off the hook for insulting independent journalist Jonathan Choe.
Choe, who was fired from KOMO-TV for his less-than-critical coverage of a Proud Boys’ rally, now covers homelessness for Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank. Think what you want about Choe’s brand of journalism, but he’s far from the only independent reporter in town.
At a press conference about youth diversion, Choe started to ask Constantine about public safety concerns among the city’s Asian-American community – a legitimate topic by any standard.
Rather than answer, Constantine left the room. Not one to be ignored, Choe followed and continued his line of questioning. That’s when Constantine turned to Choe and said something that should anger every reporter in town:
“You’re not actually a journalist.”
A shocking attack on the press from someone who wants to be our governor someday.
Since when do we allow politicians to decide who the real journalists are?
Since when are we fine with politicians treating reporters with such hostility? We certainly weren’t fine with Trump doing it.
I can’t help but think that if Choe worked for one of the city’s many left-leaning blogs, or if Constantine were a Republican, the media’s collective response would have been resounding.
Failure to defend Choe gives Constantine a free pass for his behavior. Even worse, it emboldens other politicians who hope to evade hard questions by engaging in personal attacks.
