Politics vs. Press
The White House press ban may not be new right now, but it may not be known that this has happened to the local media. Not just the national one.
Mark Reagan, metro editor for The Monitor, The Brownsville Herald and the Valley Morning Star, said his team had a similar instance earlier this year with the local government restricting certain press access.
On Feb. 3 at the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in Harlingen, Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign denied access to AIM Media, which is the company that owns the three newspapers Reagan writes for in the Rio Grande Valley.
In a Feb. 13 editorial posted by MyRGV, AIM Texas Editorial Board stated, a media advisory indicated the event was open access and the newspaper was invited to cover.
UTRGV student newspaper, The Rider, also experienced media restrictions.
On Sept. 30, a reporter from The Rider, along with other members of the media, were denied access to a rally featuring Vice President JD Vance and Republican challenger for District 34 Eric Flores in Harlingen.
William Strong, a mass communication professor at UTRGV, said even after the White House press ban, it is not uncommon to see media restrictions locally.
“The local government is always walking right over the First Amendment, and there’s not enough power to push back quickly,” Strong said.
Reagan and Strong shared, respectively, they believe Trump and his administration will likely attempt to restrict certain news outlets again.
In his Sept. 18 Truth Social post, Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House grounds. Despite U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly’s temporary block on the media ban, the White House blocked Politico from boarding Air Force One on a presidential trip to Nebraska on Oct. 5.
“[Trump’s] strategy is to maneuver the court, so he’ll just try a new tactic,” Strong said.
Reagan, who has been a journalist since 2010, said part of being a member of the press is confrontation, which Trump and his administration seem to have a love-hate relationship with.
Trump, on record, has scrutinized reporters who particularly oppose his ideas. Instead of providing answers to the reporters, he resorts to name-calling the news outlet or even the reporters themselves.
“It’s unconstitutional for him [President Trump] to provide some news outlets with access and block others,” Strong said. “It’s the people’s house. It’s not his personal house.”
