Top Stories

EPA Blocks CNN and AP From Event, Guard Reportedly Shoves Reporter

By News & Guts
Welcome

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 26: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Environment Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. The focus of nearly a dozen federal inquiries into his travel expenses, security practices and other issues, Pruitt testified about his agency's FY2019 budget proposal.

Today was a perfect example that the current administration doesn’t understand how a free press works. Three outlets were barred from covering a chemical summit run by the Environmental Protection Agency. CNN, the Associated Press and E&E News (an environmental site) were all blocked from going inside the event. Not only that, the AP says security guards went a step further, taking physical action against one of its reporters.

The AP reports:

“Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building. When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building.”

In a statement CNN said:

“Today, CNN was turned away from covering the PFAS National Leadership Summit at the EPA after multiple attempts to attend. While several news organizations were permitted, the EPA selectively excluded CNN and other media outlets. We understand the importance of an open and free press and we hope the EPA does, too.”

AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said:

“The Environmental Protection Agency’s selective barring of news organizations, including the AP, from covering today’s meeting is alarming and a direct threat to the public’s right to know about what is happening inside their government. It is particularly distressing that any journalist trying to cover an event in the public interest would be forcibly removed.”

When asked about banning reporters the EPA reportedly cited space issues, but The Hill points out that excuse doesn’t add up:

“…a handful of assigned reporter seats remained vacant by the time Pruitt began speaking, including one for a Wall Street Journal reporter who decided to watch the event via the livestream instead. A seat marked for Hearst Media was left open. Another publication was invited to the event but declined to send a reporter after learning that Pruitt would not be taking questions. CBS was the only major news outlet recording the event on video from the back of the room.”

After major criticism, the EPA changed course and suddenly found room for the outlets in the afternoon portion of the event, but. Politico reports:

“EPA later reversed course and said it would allow reporters to attend the afternoon sessions of the summit, three hours after initially ejecting the media. But that didn’t reassure activists from the communities that have been exposed to the chemicals, known as PFAS, who were allowed little access to the summit.”