No Respect and No Shame

Yesterday, I told you about Ed Brayton and Todd Heywood's experience trying to cover the Michigan Republicon Party's convention. The saga continues, with Michigan Cons denying the intrepid independent reporters media credentials for the second straight day. But this time, the Cons are on the record with their sorry-ass excuses:

Party officials described the denial as “a consequence” of Messenger’s coverage of the Michigan Republican Party, specifically Eartha Jane Melzer’s article from last September titled “Lose your house, lose your vote.” The story cited a GOP official in Macomb County as saying the party planned on Election Day to use foreclosure lists as the basis for challenging voter eligibility.

“It [the article] wasn’t very favorable to the party, and we just chose not to give you guys credentials,” said a man who would only give his first name, Greg, and identified himself as the new media coordinator for the party.

Party spokesperson Robert Wolfe denied that the GOP was censoring the media.

“We’re in favor of allowing media into our conventions that we feel are going to give us fair coverage. Based on our previous experiences with you, we do not feel that you are such an outlet,” he said.

Apparently, the Cons define the phrase "fair coverage" the same way they define the word "bipartisanship." They also have a rather sad grasp of censorship. When you deny reporters credentials with which to cover you because you're afraid they'll write something honest, you have just censored the media. It may not be the dictionary definition, but that is the effect. And it's anathema in a democracy.

Ed is righteously pissed:

The upshot of all this is quite simple. It's an attempt by the Republicans to intimidate news outlets into giving them favorable coverage. The message is clear: you do a story about us that we don't like, we'll shut you out and you won't get any access. This has been going on for months. We've gotten no response at all out of Michigan Republicans, including government officials in office, virtually since the story broke.

And the most grating thing about it: they didn't have the courage to just tell us that up front. They didn't return our calls all week seeking credentials for the convention. And when we got there last night, they lied right to our faces and told us that we didn't need credentials, only to find out later that we did and that they wouldn't allow us on the convention floor. And the media coordinator refused repeatedly to tell us who made the decision so they could be held to account for it.

Not only are they corrupt, not only do they not give a damn about freedom of the press, not only are they authoritarians who seek to punish legitimate news outlets that dare to publish true stories that make them look bad - they're also cowards to boot.

Lying, corrupt cowards - yup. That's the GOP in a nutshell. Ed forgot the part about them being tantrum-throwing toddlers, but I guess that goes without saying by now.

Two sound thrashings didn't work. Looks like we'll have to throw them in kiddie boot camp next election. Prepare to proffer political pain, my poppets. And a variety of other Con-pummelling slogans that don't necessarily employ the letter P, but come down to one thing: the only way these sons-of-motherless-goats will ever be taught the proper respect for the press and our political system is by dealing them yet another resounding electoral defeat.

Not that the third time's the charm with fucktards this dense, but at least there won't be so many of them around screwing things up.