Tea Party Restricts Media At Town Hall Meeting With House Rep.
Lets hear it for freedom of the press! I just don’t have the snark this morning to comment on this:
A tea party group ordered a media blackout during the question-and-answer portion of U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa’s first town hall meeting since he took office in January.
The Redding Tea Party members who organized Monday’s town hall meeting at Destiny Fellowship Church said they made the call after regular meeting goers requested it. Those participants said they didn’t feel they had the freedom to speak their minds.
Organizers made numerous clarifications regarding their position in response to media reports, including from the Record Searchlight, that they were unable to report from the Q&A.
The Record Searchlight tweeted some of LaMalfa’s responses in the first 25 minutes of the nearly two-hour session but was asked by a tea party member to stop or risk not being invited back to future meetings. A tea party member later sat next to the reporter for the remainder of the session.
Press coverage of Congressman LaMalfa’s meeting shut down
And then double down:
A day after the Redding Tea Party Patriot’s stirred controversy over its decision to impose a media blackout of a Monday night chat with Doug LaMalfa, a volunteer said the group will continue to limit press coverage of future meetings.
Elizabeth Woodward said the speaker presentations will remain open to the public, but their question-and-answer segments with the audience will be private to ease attendees’ concerns about reporters being in the room.
Tea party group says it will continue to restrict media access to meetings