Press sits with the public in the Virginia Senate

Those poor reporters.

Not big fans of the public, these members of the press must be. Since their previous seating on the Senate floor was changed to the public gallery, the whining has been shrill, consistent and snobbish.

Newspaper after newspaper has cried about this, claiming that liberty itself is at the precipice if lazy reporters weren’t returned to their front row seats with taxpayer-supplied electricity for their laptops and the ability to pretend that they’re the important ones in the room.

News flash for the news writers: No one cares.

Right now, as I sit writing this 100 miles from Richmond, and I can watch the Senate and the House floor sessions simultaneously. I can hear every word. I can read bills on LIS and get vote counts as they occur.

I could be one heck of a reporter, and I’m not even there.

Newspaper writers are complaining that they have to be on the floor to listen and not in the gallery, right near the big closed circuit video boards and speaker system where you can see and hear every word of each debate better than if you were Ralph Northam.

Boo hoo to you.

It’s not like blogs are allowed any access that reporters get. The Virginia Capitol Correspondents Association sees to that. They set up some rules, like to be considered a news reporter, you have to be paid and work full time at it.

This to cover a part-time legislature.

So these reporters and newspapers have denied access to news organizations like Bearing Drift for years and have had no problem denying requests for credentials to share their floor privileges.

Someone does the same to them and it’s an inkwell of hissy fits.

Heck, these newspapers should have been ejected long ago for violating their rules for credentials all along.

The news organization must (i) work independently of any government, industry, or institution and (ii) not engage, directly or indirectly, in any lobbying, political activity or other activity intended to influence elections or any matter before the General Assembly or before any independent agency, or any department or other instrumentality of the Executive Branch.

Has a newspaper ever tried to influence elections? (endorsements) or any matter before the General Assembly? (editorials galore)

Every darn one of them has.

And don’t give me that news vs.editorial garbage, because this rule says “news organization” and no one can claim that a particular page is an independent news organization. They all get their checks from the same employer.

They say every sports writer is a wannabe athlete. I’m beginning to think similar thoughts about political reporters who can’t function without being allowed on a legislative floor and thinking to themselves, “I could’ve been in those chairs.”

Of course, sitting in the gallery means reporters might not get on camera anymore.

It’s not about access. Politicians can and do ignore reporters to their faces if they want to.

It’s not about doing the job of reporting. Anyone in the world can watch legislative sessions and report what happened.

So, why the whimpering?

A combination of a sense of journalistic entitlement and ego. Reporters should never become the story. That they’ve made themselves the story here says more about reporter attitudes about who are the truly important people to them.

Maybe the whiners will get their way and get back on the floor again.

I wonder if these reporters realize how hypocritical and self-centered they’ve shown themselves to be.

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