No Power in the Pen
Because during the impeachment trial, reporters will be confined to a pen.
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New Rules Limit Journalists During Impeachment Trial
AN OVERVIEW: For President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, which begins next week, the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, Capitol Police, and the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms handed down a slew of new, unprecedented rules to control and limit journalists covering the trial under the guise of ensuring the “security” of senators.
Journalists covering the ordeal in the Capitol Building will be confined to a single press pen. They will not be able to walk with senators through the hallway and ask them questions like they usually do. Additionally, only one government-run camera will be allowed in the room and no still photographers will be allowed in to take pictures. Journalists will have to go through two separate rounds of security—one to enter the Capitol — as usual — and a second, unprecedented one in order to enter the Senate chamber.
“You’ll have to decide where’s the best place to watch; it’s like watching a football game,” Senate Rules Chairman Roy Blunt told Roll Call coldly. “Where’s the best place to watch it?”
“Until he reverses these arbitrary new rules, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is violating Americans’ First Amendment rights during a monumental moment in US history: the trial for the impeachment of the President of the United States,” said Dokhi Fassihian, executive director of Reporters Without Borders USA. “By preventing the press from asking questions on behalf of the American people during this trial, the Senate is escaping public scrutiny and effectively undermining the very foundation of our democracy.” The Committee to Protect Journalists, the National Press Club, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and 57 news organizations joined the call for the Senate to reverse course.
“Absent an articulable security rationale,” RCFP’s letter says, Senate leaders and security officials “have an obligation to preserve and promote the public’s right to know.” The Standing Committee of Correspondents and tons of individual reporters, like Washington Post congressional reporter Mike DeBonis, have pushed to get the rules changed. “NO STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS allowed to document the transfer of the articles to the Senate?!?!?,” DeBonis tweeted. “I stand with the Standing Committee of Correspondents & scores of colleagues who cover the Capitol daily in condemning this outrageous breach of press freedom.”
Because the single video camera allowed in is a government-run camera, the cable-funded public affairs network C-SPAN also protested. “There are few duties more significant or historic than when the Senate exercises its constitutional role of impeaching a president,” wrote C-SPAN Co-chief Executive Susan Swain. “We believe, and hope you will agree, that the American public deserves a more comprehensive view of the Senate trial.”
The decision also goes against precedent—not merely day-to-day precedent, but impeachment precedent too. “The planned restriction on the press will surpass those in place for the Clinton impeachment trial and even the highly charged confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, when hundreds of protesters led to daily media crackdowns — even though none of the protesters were credentialed media,” Roll Call reported.
HERE’S WHY IT REALLY MATTERS: The impeachment trial is an outsized scene compared to most days on Capitol Hill. Reporters who do not cover Congress daily will be there… and that’s okay. This trial is so much more significant than the Capitol is used to and it’s going to attract more interest than even the House of Representatives-led hearings we just watched unfold. This is only the third time in history an impeachment trial has occurred.
None of that is meant to excuse the Senate leadership’s reaction. It’s completely wrongheaded, and the Senate security personnel’s participation is too. The new rules do a few things: a.) they limit what the public can see. That means you will only get the trial from one angle, from one government-run camera. Anyone who has watched C-SPAN knows it’s not entertainment programming; but it’s a private service that provides clear, multi-shot views of what’s happening. b.) you won’t see photos… at all. Photographs capture something distinct from video cameras and the written word. One crucial medium is being excluded for no reason. c.) No audio recordings will be permitted. That shuts out radio reporters. d.) Reporters cannot question senators in the hallways. That means no gut reactions, no first impressions, no off-the-cuff remarks. Senators will be afforded the option to avoid the press entirely. The only senators that reporters will have access to are ones that willingly walk over to the press pen. That’s a self-selecting crew and allows senators to use media rather than reporters ask questions of the senators from which they want comment.
The Senate rules are not protecting senators’ from security threats; it’s protecting them from talking to reporters. And it’s got to stop.
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