By Phil Kabler, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Reporters and public officials, by nature, have something of an adversarial relationship, but in recent years, officials’ attitudes toward the press have become increasingly hostile, much as they have come to see members of the other political party not as the loyal opposition, but as an existential threat.
I suppose much of that is the result of the ascension of Donald Trump in the Republican Party, a person who has long declared any news that isn’t complimentary to him to be “fake.”
Trump’s disdain for a free press was on full display this week in Chicago, with his repulsively petulant behavior toward a reporter who was simply doing her job (and doing it very well).
In West Virginia, no public official is more hostile toward the press than Gov. Jim Justice and the Justice administration.
MetroNews’ Brad McElhinny is the latest reporter to feel the wrath of Justice, joining a list of reporters (starting with yours truly) who are banned from participating in Justice’s weekly virtual briefings, which are essentially the media’s only point of access to our part-time, absentee governor.
(Justice has also apparently banned certain WSAZ-TV reporters because of their coverage of the multiple failings by the Department of Human Services that may have contributed to the death of a Boone County teenager. Combined, those bans resulted in virtual briefings on July 18 and July 31 that were conspicuous each time in that only two reporters were allowed to participate.)
