WND denied congressional pass
Farah: Senate gallery 'playing politics with newssite's 1st-Amendment rights'

Back to the Government-Media Complex Page


Wednesday, February 13, 2002
By David Kupelian

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

The Senate Press Gallery, which grants permanent congressional press passes to hundreds of news organizations – from the ubiquitous Associated Press to tiny one-man operations, from college papers to the official propaganda organs of totalitarian nations – has denied the same accreditation to the Internet's leading independent newssite, WorldNetDaily.com.

A permanent congressional press pass is an essential tool for Washington-based journalists, since it allows unfettered access to many key government offices, congressional hearings, press conferences and the like. Currently, more than 300 daily publications of all conceivable types are accredited by the gallery – even foreign government-owned-and-controlled press organs such as Egypt's Al-Ahram, the Beijing Daily, and the Vietnam News Agency.

The Press Gallery of dailies is distinct from the Periodical Press Gallery (magazines), the Radio-Television Gallery and the Press Photographers Gallery.

Took 1 year to decide

WorldNetDaily applied Feb. 8, 2001 to the Senate Press Gallery, and what is normally a straightforward process has taken one year, as the Standing Committee of Correspondents finally has voted against accrediting WorldNetDaily.

The reasons? Deputy Director Joe Keenan, WorldNetDaily's sole contact in the Senate Press Gallery for the past year, claims there were several: 1) the fact that the Western Journalism Center, from which WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. spun off as a for-profit corporation in October 1999, owns stock in WND; 2) the determination that WorldNetDaily doesn’t have enough reporters; 3) the determination that the newssite doesn't have enough original content; and 4) the fact that WorldNetDaily runs ads for books and other products mixed in with the news.

In a Feb. 8, 2002, letter received yesterday by WorldNetDaily – written exactly one year after the newssite's application and fees were submitted – Bloomberg News Chairman William Roberts, who currently serves as chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents, explained the committee's reasons for denying WorldNetDaily:

  • This letter is to inform you the Standing Committee of Correspondents at its meeting on January 29, 2002, voted unanimously to decline your application for press credentials.

    The Standing Committee has long held that publications operated, funded or affiliated with tax-free special interest or issue advocacy groups do not qualify for accreditation. WorldNetDaily was founded and operated as part of the Western Journalism Center, a non-profit advocacy group. The Western Journalism Center continues to own a significant interest in WorldNetDaily.

    The committee recognizes the emergence of electronic publications as a legitimate extension of the print tradition. To be accredited, online publications "must provide daily news with significant original reporting content." We do not believe WorldNetDaily meets this threshold.

    If you wish the committee to reconsider its decision, you may request a hearing. You may also reapply in the future should WorldNetDaily's corporate structure and business model change.

    Sincerely,

    William Roberts
    Chairman
    Standing Committee of Correspondents

At WorldNetDaily's request, Keenan forwarded all "rules and guidelines" that govern the standing committee's deliberations over applications for press credentials. But there were no written rules among them dealing with non-profit status.

Pressed further to identify exactly which section of the rules deal with the non-profit issue that has disqualified WorldNetDaily, Keenan e-mailed the following excerpts yesterday:

  • Members of the Press Galleries shall not engage in lobbying or paid advertising, publicity, promotion work for any individual, political party, corporation, organization, or agency of the Federal Government.

    2. Persons desiring admission to the press galleries of Congress shall make application in accordance with Rule 6 of the House of Representatives, subject to the direction and control of the Speaker and Rule 33 of the Senate, which rules shall be interpreted and administered by the Standing Committee of Correspondents, subject to the review and an approval by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration.

"He's got to be kidding," responded WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. CEO and Editor Joseph Farah. "They've transformed the fact that WND was legally and properly spun off as an independent, for-profit corporation from its non-profit roots into a caricature of WND as engaging in 'lobbying or paid advertising, publicity, or promotion work' for some other organization."

The notion that WorldNetDaily is now "operated, funded or affiliated" with a non-profit advocacy group "is absurd," added Farah. "The fact that the Western Journalism Center owns a minority of our stock is a far cry from our being the journalistic mouthpiece of the Center. It's amazing that the standing committee is making such a case."

Ironically, the Associated Press itself is a non-profit organization, a point Farah made to Keenan – and one with which the deputy director agreed, according to Farah.

"This decision smacks of insecurity and bias on the part of the standing committee," commented Rebecca Hagelin, WND's vice president for communications. "They obviously feel threatened by a news organization with the guts, success and pizzazz of WND.com. WorldNetDaily is different from the establishment press in this way: We're one of the few media outlets that has dared to criticize and point out how the media, in general, have failed to carry out the original mission of the press envisioned by our Founding Fathers – to serve as a watchdog on government."

'Fishing for new reasons'

"All of the excuses we have been given over this period of time represent nothing more than that – excuses," said Farah. "The Senate Press Gallery keeps fishing for new reasons why we should be denied accreditation. As soon as we knock one down, another bogus question – having nothing to do with the group's published rules and regulations – emerges."

Since making application a year ago, senior management of WorldNetDaily has followed up regularly and repeatedly with Keenan, and each time, says Farah, "the goalposts have been moved."

For instance, Keenan's initial reservation about WorldNetDaily, as expressed to the newssite's Washington bureau chief Paul Sperry, was that WND is an independent Internet publication – that is, not a spin-off of any traditional offline news organization. Keenan told Sperry he didn't know how the committee would evaluate an application from an independently owned Internet news publication, implying there was no precedent for it.

Next, said Farah, "the concern was with what the committee apparently thought was the non-profit status of WorldNetDaily. But as I explained to Keenan repeatedly, over the course of a year, we are a for-profit corporation. After our repeated explanations, and his own research, Keenan led us to believe our non-profit origin would probably not be an issue."

Oddly, as one roadblock was apparently cleared, another surfaced.

For instance, late last year Keenan asked WND what its relationship was to Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest legal firm, indicating the standing committee was concerned about perceived ties to the group. WorldNetDaily has no connection to Judicial Watch.

'Bona fide working press'

The basic requirement listed on the Gallery application for accreditation is: "Membership in the Press Galleries is restricted to bona fide working press living in the Washington, D.C., area and working for newspapers or news services engaged in the daily dissemination of the news."

The rules were amended in 1996 to include Internet publications:

  • The Standing Committee recognizes the emergence of electronic publications as a legitimate extension of the print tradition, and will provide credentials to bona fide, Washington-based reporters for those organizations which, in the Committee's judgment, are engaged in the daily publication of general interest news for dissemination to a wide segment of the general public.

    To be eligible for consideration, an applicant must demonstrate that it meets the following, minimum criteria: (a) It must provide daily news with significant original reporting content. (b) It must charge a market rate fee for subscriptions or access, or carry paid advertising at current market rates.

WorldNetDaily.com currently attracts enormous traffic amounting to more than 2.5 million unique visitors monthly. After almost five years of operation, the popular seven-day-a-week newssite has thousands of original news stories and columns permanently archived on-site, is frequently cited by other media such as the Associated Press and the Washington Post, and has been responsible for breaking many major national news stories.

Keenan questioned Farah as to the number of full-time reporters WorldNetDaily has, implying there might not be enough to qualify for accreditation. (In fact, the one-man operation of columnist James Bovard – the Bovard News Service – is accredited by the standing committee.)

WND currently employs 13 full-time editorial people, including a full-time roving foreign correspondent. In addition, WND contracts for services with numerous part-time reporters, and features some 40 original, exclusive columnists – more than any newspaper in the country. Its reporters, editors and exclusive columnists are frequent guests on network and cable television.

Before coming to WorldNetDaily in early 2000 as Washington bureau chief, Sperry held the same position with Investors' Business Daily, and was accredited by the Gallery. He has been waiting over a year now for the same permanent congressional press pass he had back then.

"WorldNetDaily.com has attracted a huge following in a very short time, has broken more national stories than anyone on that committee can ever hope to, and has done so with a streamlined budget and some of the best reporters and editors in the business," said Hagelin. "It's becoming increasingly difficult for other news companies to justify their own tremendous overheads and large staffs with WND.com cranking out a continuous barrage of hard-hitting investigative stories."

Indeed, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. – since 1999 a for-profit corporation – is one of the very few Internet news companies that has become actually profitable since the great "dotcom meltdown" of the past two years, as BusinessWeek Online reported recently. Yet, Keenan says ironically, the Standing Committee of Correspondents is troubled that the newssite markets products. But it is the sale of products, coupled with advertising revenues, that actually allows the online news organization to operate as a for-profit company, which the committee insists accredited news organizations must be.

Speculating on the standing committee's possible motives, Hagelin added: "If the press gallery's motive is to silence us, to discourage us, or to keep us from the core of government activity, they will soon realize that WND.com is a news agency that not only welcomes this fight, but will eventually win. On behalf of the millions of readers we serve, of an American public that now expects the truth from the media, we will fight this battle for accreditation until we have the same access to our government leaders currently provided to foreign government-controlled papers and the 'establishment press' here at home."

For his part, Farah thinks the standing committee is grasping at straws.

"I am 100 percent convinced," he said, "after a year of playing footsie with the Senate Press Gallery, that WorldNetDaily has been systematically discriminated against by this group because it doesn't like our reporting style – which is aggressive, fiercely independent and focuses on investigative digging into government fraud, waste, corruption and abuse."

"There's simply no other explanation for being singled out," he added. "It's time for the Senate Press Gallery to stop playing politics with WorldNetDaily's First Amendment rights. It amounts to nothing less than prior restraint. I would expect more from a group that is supposed to represent the interests of journalists. But, evidently, the Senate Press Gallery is more interested in protecting the sacred cows of the beltway business-as-usual crowd."

Read Joseph Farah's column, "The government-media cabal," including the Senate Press Gallery's list of currently accredited daily news organizations.

David Kupelian is vice president and managing editor of WorldNetDaily.com and Whistleblower magazine.

The government-media cabal

Wednesday, February 13, 2002
By Joseph Farah

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

What do the following "news organizations" have in common?

Al-Ahram, Beijing Daily, China Press, China Youth Daily, China Times, Sing Tao Daily, the Vietnam News Agency and the Xinhua News Agency.

If you guessed that they are all – to one extent or another – representatives of the government-controlled press, you would be right. You win the prize.

But, they all have something else in common, too – something you may not have guessed.

They are all fully accredited members of the Washington press corps, with full access to congressional hearings, offices, press conferences, deliberations and special sessions.

Meanwhile, I need to point out, WorldNetDaily has been denied credentials by the august body known as the Standing Committee of Correspondents that granted those official news organs accreditation.

That's right. DENIED. Why?

Well, I will list for you the various excuses we have been getting for a full year now:

  1. WorldNetDaily is a non-profit.

    Well, no it is not – as we have been telling Joe Keenan, deputy director of the Senate Press Gallery, since day one. The confusion about this stems from the fact that WorldNetDaily was launched under the auspices of a non-profit, the Western Journalism Center, in 1997. By 1999, it had been spun off as a for-profit operation and has been ever since. In fact, WorldNetDaily may be the only Internet news company actually paying its own bills with its own revenues.

  2. WorldNetDaily is partly owned by a non-profit.

    Yes, there is some truth to this statement. Because of the nature of the spinoff, Western Journalism Center retains a significant amount of stock in the for-profit, though it is a minority percentage, and even that is continually diminishing as more stock is sold and as the company repurchases those shares. But, I'll tell you why this is merely an excuse for the committee.

    There are no written rules prohibiting either non-profit news agencies from accreditation nor companies partly owned by non-profits. In fact, there are many of them currently among the roster of news agencies accredited in the Capitol – the Christian Science Monitor, the Associated Press, Religion News Service and the Washington Times, which, like the Christian Science Monitor, is owned 100 percent by a church, even though the newspaper may be set up as a for-profit operation.

  3. WorldNetDaily doesn't have enough original content.

    Again, there is nothing in the rules about this, which shows the committee is winging it – making them up as it goes along. But, I'll leave that to you, dear readers, to decide whether WorldNetDaily has enough original content. Some 2.5 million different readers a month seem to think we have something to offer. We have thousands – that's right – thousands of original WND news stories and columns permanently archived on our website.

    We have been responsible for breaking countless important national news stories over the past almost five years. Our material is frequently cited, with attribution, by many of those news organizations accredited by the Senate Press Gallery, such as the Associated Press and the Washington Post. But the czars of the Washington Beltway journalistic establishment apparently do not think these journalistic credentials are sufficiently worthy.

  4. WorldNetDaily runs ads for books and other products mixed in with the news.

    No, I'm not kidding, people. This was the last line of explanation from Keenan when all the other excuses were shot down. Yes, I know, newspapers have been mixing ads with news for more than 200 years in America. I didn't come up with this, the government-media cabal did. Of course, it is the very fact that we sell products and advertising that enables us to be a legitimate for-profit daily news organization, though, again, not that it should matter under the committee's stated rules.

What does all this mean? In one sense, not much – WorldNetDaily will continue to expose the rampant fraud, waste, abuse and corruption in Washington, just as we have for nearly five years. We'll do it in spite of the obstacles. We can still get access to the Capitol with daily press credentials when we need them, says Keenan.

On the other hand, we'd rather have the same, unfettered access to our tax-supported government institutions as that which the standing committee has seen fit to give to the official Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram. We think WorldNetDaily should have at least as much access to Congress as Beijing's communist propaganda organ, Xinhua News Agency.

We've published the complete list of more than 300 daily "news organizations" below. You judge for yourself.

If you think the standing committee is making a mistake by omitting WorldNetDaily, maybe you should drop Joe Keenan an e-mail.

ABIM News Agency
ANG Newspapers
ANSA Italian News Agency
Aftenposten
Air Daily
Akahata
Al-Ahram
Al-Madinah Newspaper
Albuquerque Journal
AllAfrica.com
Allentown Morning Call
American Banker
American Metal Market
Anchorage Daily News
Arab News
Arizona Republic
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Artists & Writers Syndicate
Asahi Shimbun
Asian Wall Street Journal
Associated Press
Associated Press of Pakistan
Australian
Australian Financial Review
Baltimore Sun
Bangor Daily News
Baton Rouge Advocate
Beijing Daily
BioWorld Today
Bloomberg News
Bond Buyer
Boston Globe
Boston Herald
Boston University News Service
Bovard News Service
Buenos Aires Economico
Buffalo News
Business Day
CBS MarketWatch
CQ Daily Monitor
Cablefax Daily
Canadian Press
Casper Star-Tribune
Catholic News Service
Central News Agency
Charleston (WVA) Daily Mail
Charleston Post-Courier
Chattanooga Times/Free Press
Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Tribune
China Economic Daily
China Press
China Times
China Youth Daily
Christian Science Monitor
Chronicle of Higher Education
Clarin
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Colorado Springs Gazette
Columbus Dispatch
Communications Daily
Congressional Information Bureau
Congressional Quarterly
Connecticut Post
Copley News Service
Corriere Della Sera
Cox Newspapers
Dagens Nyheter
Daily Deal
Daily Oklahoman
Dallas Morning News
Dayton Daily News
Deep Dixie News Service
Defense Daily
Denver Post
Der Bund
Des Moines Register
Deseret News
Detroit Free Press
Detroit News
Die Presse
Die Welt
Dong-a Ilbo
Donrey Media Group
Dow Jones Corporate Filings Alert
Dow Jones Newswires
EFE News Services
East Valley Tribune
Easton Express-Times
Edinburgh Business AM
Education Daily
El Espectador
El Financiero
El Norte & Reforma
El Nuevo Dia
El Pais
El Tiempo
El Universal
El Vocero de Puerto Rico
Eleftheros Typos
Energy Argus
Energy Daily
Environment News Service
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairchild News Service
Financial Times
Financial Times Deutschland
Financial Times Energy
Florida Times-Union
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Frankfurter Rundschau
Fredericksburg Freelance-Star
Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette
Gannett News Service
Gas Daily
Gazeta Wyborcza
German Press Agency - DPA
Gestion
Global Horizons Syndicate
Griffin-Larrabee News Service
Guangming Daily
Han-Kyoreh Shinmun
Handelsblatt
Hankook Ilbo & Korea Times
Hartford Courant
Hearst Newspapers
Hindu
Hindustan Times
Hokkaido Shimbun
Hollywood Reporter
Hong Kong iMail
Houston Chronicle
Huntsville Times
Hurriyet
Il Giornale
Il Sole 24 Ore
Il Tempo
Inter Press Service
International Herald Tribune
Investor's Business Daily
Irish Times
Itar-Tass News Agency
Jerusalem Post
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jiji Press
Joong Ang Ilbo
Jyllands-Posten
Kipling News Service
Knight Ridder
Korea Economic Daily
Kuwait News Agency
Kyodo News
Kyung Hyang Shinmun
L'Orient - Le Jour
L'Unita
LRP Publications
La Jornada
La Nacion
La Nazione
La Opinion
La Razon
La Tribuna
La Van Guardia
Lahontan Valley News
Las Vegas Sun
Le Figaro
Le Mauricien
Le Monde
Lexington Herald-Leader
Liberation
Lincoln Journal Star
London Daily Telegraph
London Guardian
London Independent
London Register
London Sunday Telegraph
London Sunday Times
London Times
Los Angeles Daily Journal
Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Los Angeles Times
Louisville Courier-Journal
Maeil Business Newspaper
Magyar Szo
Mainichi Newspapers
Manchester Union Leader
McClatchy Newspapers
McClendon News Service
Media General News Service
Medill News Service
Megawatt Daily
Military Update
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Munwha Ilbo
Myers News Service
Nachrichten fuer Aussenhandel
National Journal News Service
National Journal's TechnologyDaily
National Post
Netherlands Press Association
Neue Zurcher Zeitung
New Haven Register
New York Daily News
New York Post
New York Times
Newhouse News Service
Newport News Daily Press
Newsday
Newspaper Enterprise Association
Nikkei
Nishi-Nippon Shimbun
Nordic Media
Northwest Newspapers
Notimex Mexican News Agency
O Estado De S. Paulo
Oil Daily
Oliphant News Service
Omaha World-Herald
Orange County Register
Orlando Sentinel
Palm Beach Post
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
PlanetGov.com
Platt's Oilgram News
Polish Press Agency
Portland Press Herald
Press Trust of India
Providence Journal
Religion News Service
Restructuring Today
Reuters
Rheinische Post
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Roll Call Report Syndicate
Rzeczpospolita
SNG Newspapers
Sabah
San Antonio Express-News
San Francisco Chronicle
Sankei Shimbun
Saudi Press Agency
Schlein News Bureau
Science and Technology Daily
Scripps Howard News Service
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Segye Times
Sekai Nippo
Seoul Shinmun
Shearer and Glen News Enterprise
Sing Tao Daily
Singapore Straits Times
Solothurner Zeitung
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Southam News of Canada
Southwest News Service
Springer Foreign News Service
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Petersburg Times
States News Service
Stuttgarter Zeitung
Suara Merdeka
Suara Pembaruan
Suddeutsche Zeitung
Svenska Dagbladet
Sydney Morning Herald
Syracuse Post-Standard
Tages Anzeiger
Taipei Times
Taiwan Liberty Times
Taz-Die Tageszeitung
Tech Law Journal
Times of India
Tokyo-Chunichi Shimbun
Toronto Globe and Mail
Tribune De Geneve
Tufty News Service
Tulsa World
Turkiye Daily
US-Asian News Service
USA Today
United Daily News
United Media
United News of India
United Press International
United States Press
Vietnam News Agency
Virginian-Pilot
Wall Street Journal
Washington Bureau News
Washington Fax
Washington Post
Washington Post-Newsbytes
Washington Telecommunications
Washington Times
WashingtonPost.com
Wen Hui Bao Daily
Westdeutsche Allgemeine
William Scally Reports
Winston-Salem Journal
World Journal
Xinhua News Agency
Yedioth Ahronoth
Yomiuri Shimbun
Yonhap News Agency

Joseph Farah is editor and chief executive officer of WorldNetDaily.com and writes a daily column. Get an autographed, first-edition copy of Joseph Farah's 1996 book, "This Land Is Our Land," published by St. Martin's Press.

Denial of WND press pass unlawful, says legal group
Senate Press Gallery decision called 'absolutely discriminatory'

Thursday, February 14, 2002
By David Kupelian

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

The decision by the Senate Press Gallery to deny congressional press accreditation to WorldNetDaily.com is "absolutely discriminatory" and a violation of WND's First Amendment rights, according to a public-interest law firm that has come to the newssite's aid.

Richard Ackerman, attorney for the non-profit public-interest United States Justice Foundation, which is joining in WND's fight, said yesterday of the gallery's action: "We think this is absolutely discriminatory, and we're dismayed by their actions."

As WND reported yesterday, the Senate Press Gallery -- after one year of deliberating – turned down the influential Internet news organization's request for permanent congressional press credentials. The pass allows access to congressional offices, hearings, press conferences and special sessions, and as such is an essential tool for Washington-based journalists. More than 300 daily publications are currently accredited, including -- as WND reported – the state-owned propaganda arms of foreign totalitarian regimes, such as Egypt's Al-Ahram and China's Beijing Daily.

After yesterday's news story, WorldNetDaily was flooded with thousands of e-mails from readers, indignant that the media company had been denied accreditation.

But WND wasn't the only one being deluged with e-mail. The accompanying column by WorldNetDaily Editor and CEO Joseph Farah invited readers to e-mail gallery Deputy Director Joe Keenan. As a result, yesterday Keenan received more than 2,000 e-mails in support of WorldNetDaily.

WND knows this because, late yesterday, William Roberts, current chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents (and chairman of Bloomberg News), phoned Farah to discuss the controversy.

After informing Farah that Keenan had received in excess of 2,000 e-mails protesting the committee’s decision, Roberts said, “I request – no, I demand – that you remove Joe Keenan’s e-mail address from your site.”

Roberts screamed at Farah in an obscenity-laced diatribe in which he explained that there is an appeal process for the committee’s decision.

When Farah explained that WorldNetDaily has been working with Keenan as the only point of contact for more than a full year, Roberts said the committee only recently decided to deny the newssite permanent credentials. The site has been under review for a year and was found wanting for lack of original content, said Roberts.

WorldNetDaily currently employs 13 full-time editorial staffers and many part-timers, and has thousands of original news stories and columns archived on-site, including many major national scoops.

Farah declined Roberts' demand to remove Keenan’s e-mail link.

Roberts also claimed Paul Sperry, WND’s Washington bureau chief, has not taken advantage of the daily press passes offered to him over the past year. (Keenan had offered, while WND's application was under consideration, to supply Sperry with a day pass for which he would have to come and apply each time.)

“Do you want me to tell your readers that?” he asked.

“You can tell our readers anything you want," said Farah. "I don’t believe you will have much credibility with them, but that’s your choice. Unlike you, I don’t try to shut off debate. I encourage it.”

Sperry, responding to Roberts' implication that he hadn't been covering Congress, said: "Actually, I did take Keenan up once on his offer of fettered access and got a day pass from a woman in the gallery to research Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s financial disclosure statement in the Legislative Resource Center in the Cannon Building, Room 106."

Before that, Sperry noted, in Capitol Hill trips he made last year -- like one he made to the Hart Senate Office Building, Room 232, to research Sen. Mitch McConnell's financial disclosures for a series on Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, or the ones to hearings in the Rayburn Building on "Pardongate" and other matters over the last year – he used his expired pass from Investors Business Daily. Before coming to WND, Sperry was Washington bureau chief for IBD.

To get into House Government Reform Committee hearings last year, added Sperry, Press Secretary Mark Corallo "had to wave me in at a high-security, Pardongate hearing because I didn't have my press pass to show a guard at the door."

'First Amendment means nothing to these people'

WorldNetDaily filed its application and paid the requisite fees with the gallery over a year ago, on Feb. 8, 2001.

Between that time and the standing committee's recent decision, Keenan questioned WND on a wide-ranging and ever-changing series of objections – from concern that WND is not a spin-off of a pre-existing offline news organization, to the notion that it is a non-profit outfit (it is not), to concerns over its perceived relationship with the legal foundation Judicial Watch (there is no relationship), to questions about the number of reporters. The committee finally turned thumbs down at its Jan. 29 meeting.

As Farah stated in yesterday's in-depth WND report on the Senate Press Gallery controversy: "I am 100 percent convinced, after a year of playing footsie with the Senate Press Gallery, that WorldNetDaily has been systematically discriminated against by this group because it doesn't like our reporting style – which is aggressive, fiercely independent and focuses on investigative digging into government fraud, waste, corruption and abuse."

Farah's view, as well as that of the U.S. Justice Foundation which is currently reviewing legal options with WND, is echoed by Pat Clawson, a former member of the board of the press gallery's Standing Committee for Periodicals (which deals with accrediting magazines, rather than daily news publications).

As a former gallery insider, Clawson told WorldNetDaily yesterday:

"There is an incredible amount of snobbishness on these boards. … Traditionally, it's a group of establishment insiders who turn up their noses at alternative journalism. It's like an old English gentlemen's club that doesn't like welcoming new members into the brotherhood."

Added Clawson, who is now with Radio America: "The First Amendment means nothing to these people. The taxpayers pay for this circus, public employees work in these galleries, and it is one of the most incestuous, pork-barrel operations you have ever seen -- and nobody in the press will take it on."

With the standing committee's recent decision, that appears to be changing.

The current members of the Standing Committee of Correspondents are:

Bill Roberts, Bloomberg News, Chairman
Donna Smith, Reuters, Secretary
Jim Kuhnenn, Knight Ridder
Scott Shepard, Cox Newspapers
Jack Torry, Columbus Dispatch

The director of the Senate Press Gallery is Robert E. Petersen, Jr., and the deputy director is Joe Keenan.

Read the in-depth report, "WND denied congressional pass.

Read Readers flood Senate gallery with e-mails

Read Joseph Farah's column, "The government-media cabal," including the Senate Press Gallery's list of currently accredited daily news organizations.

David Kupelian is vice president and managing editor of WorldNetDaily.com and Whistleblower magazine.

WND to sue Press Gallery
Attorney: After 19 months of 'deceit,' it's time to take them to federal court

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

After enduring 19 months of delays, ever-changing goalposts, and what it sees as blatant double standards and discrimination, WorldNetDaily.com Inc. is preparing to sue the Senate Press Gallery in federal court for denying the popular newssite access to Congress.

Litigation attorney Richard Ackerman, representing WND on behalf of the non-profit United States Justice Foundation, sent a scathing letter Friday to William Roberts, chairman of the gallery's Standing Committee of Correspondents, announcing the news organization's intention to sue. The committee, consisting of five working journalists, chooses which news organizations will and will not be allowed physical access to cover Congress.

"Please be advised that this letter serves as our last request for approval of permanent credentials in the above referenced matter," wrote Ackerman. "Unfortunately, if no action is taken by you or the Senate Rules Committee within the next 10 days, we will be forced to institute litigation in federal court."

Although the Senate Rules and Administration Committee has legal authority over press access to the Capitol and nearby House and Senate office buildings, it has delegated that responsibility to the Senate Press Gallery, which in turn empanels the Standing Committee of Correspondents that actually evaluates and decides on applicant organizations.

No word yet from Senate

Three weeks ago, on Aug. 12, WorldNetDaily formally appealed to the Senate Rules Committee to reverse the Standing Committee's Jan. 29 decision denying the newssite permanent press credentials. In the appeal brief filed with Rules chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., WND's legal team argued that the Standing Committee violated the newssite's constitutional rights as a member of the free press by discriminating against it on political grounds. A copy of the 31-page brief also was sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who shares governing authority over the press galleries.

In that appeal to the Senate, Ackerman said that the Standing Committee – whose current members work for Reuters, Cox Newspapers, Knight Ridder, Bloomberg News and the Columbus Dispatch – acted out of disdain for what it perceives to be the conservative bent of WND.

"The denial of application in this case was spurred by content-based discrimination because of political views," he argued, pointing to a list of research items used by the committee to evaluate WND. The two-page list (page one and page two) was the only material turned over to WND's legal team for its April 15 appeal in the Capitol, despite a written request for all documents related to the popular newssite's case.

"The materials provided by Mr. (Frank) Wiggins (the Standing Committee's counsel) make replete reference to stories about 'conservatism,' 'Larry Klayman,' 'conspiracism,' 'the New Right,' '[c]onservative bent,' '[c]ulture war,' 'Judicial Watch,' and other references to what is commonly associated with conservatism," Ackerman noted. Content-based discrimination is, per se, a violation of the First Amendment – which states, in part, "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," noted Ackerman, citing several case precedents in the Senate brief.

Suit to allege 'intentional violations'

Turning up the heat, however, WND is now intent on taking the Press Gallery to federal court.

If the 10 days pass without positive action on the part of either the Standing Committee or the Senate Rules Committee, said Ackerman, WND's complaint "will allege intentional violations of the First Amendment, intentional violations of the Ninth Amendment, business disparagement, defamation, intentional interference with economic advantage, anti-trust violations, violations of 'sunshine' laws, invasion of privacy, and other unlawful conduct."

Defendants will include the Standing Committee of Correspondents as well as the individual committee members. In addition, the media employers of the five Standing Committee members may not be immune from prosecution. Ackerman wrote:

  • If it comes to our attention that the employers of any of the Committee members have paid for, supervised, provided work space, computer or other equipment, or supplies, ratified, or acted as principals in any of the Committee's work in this particular matter, we will be forced to name those entities as defendants as well. Obviously, we will give any employers the opportunity to promptly extricate themselves from any potential liability if they have nothing to do with the Committee's conduct in this matter. We are in the process of determining whether or not the Committee member's employers paid for, ratified, or supervised the time spent in denying the application of WorldNetDaily.com and during the times that the Committee members engaged in other alleged tortious conduct as referenced above.

As WorldNetDaily recently reported, since receiving WND's application for permanent Capitol press credentials early last year, the Standing Committee has demonstrated what Ackerman calls a "pattern of deceit":

He says they have withheld public information, contradicted themselves, misrepresented facts, misled some of WND's more than 2.5 million readers and even a U.S. senator, told half-truths and outright falsehoods, broken due-process and procedural rules, and pried into the news-gathering practices of an independent, privately owned for-profit news organization.

A few examples, among many others:

'Defamed and disparaged' WND

"Unfortunately," Ackerman wrote to Roberts about the impending lawsuit, "it would appear that the Committee's members have defamed and disparaged WorldNetDaily.com and its personnel in recent communiques to the public and through other conduct. It also appears that violations of Senate and House rules and protocol have been intentional and discriminatory. As well, there has been a conscious disregard of the Due Process to be afforded to my clients under the United States Constitution.

"Thus, it is our position that the Committee and its members are not immune from damages and injunctive relief given the conduct involved in this matter. Accordingly, the Committee's members are advised to contact their own insurance companies with regard to any anticipated claims," wrote WND's attorney.

"We have suspected it would come down to litigation in the end," said Farah. "This committee has insulted us as a company and as individual journalists – despite the fact that those applying for accreditation have far more experience and achievements in our industry than any of those gatekeepers on the committee. This group of elitists just doesn't understand who they are tangling with and, more importantly, what they are tangling with – the First Amendment. We have exhausted every administrative remedy in this paper chase. Now it's time for the courts to decide whether we still have a free press in America."

Editor's note: WorldNetDaily has a Legal Defense Fund, set up originally to help support the newssite in its litigation with Al Gore crony Clark Jones in Tennessee and other legal challenges we face from time to time – like the current one with the Senate Press Gallery. Readers who wish to donate to help in these matters may do so in two ways:

  • Make a tax-deductible contribution to the U.S. Justice Foundation, the public-interest legal group that is handling WND's case against the Senate Press Gallery in Washington. This same group is aiding in WND's defamation case in Tennessee.
  • If tax-deductibility is not an issue, readers may donate directly to WND's Legal Defense Fund.

Contacts for Press Gallery case:

Kennie Gill, Senate Rules Committee chief of staff

(202) 224-6352

Sheryl Cohen, Sen. Dodd's chief of staff

(202) 224-2823

Kyle Simmons, chief of staff for Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., ranking Republican on Rules Committee

(202) 224-2541

Tad Vandermeid, Speaker Hastert's legal counsel

(202) 225-0305

John Feehrey, Speaker Hastert's press secretary

(202) 225-0600

Previous stories:

Is Senate Press Gallery 'corrupt'?

Media gatekeepers wrap selves in flag

Senate press cop's past grows even sketchier

Press cop has own qualification problems

Senator misled by press police

WND files appeal with Sen. Dodd, Speaker Hastert

Senate press police withhold public info

Press gallery backpedals from earlier WND stand

E-mails contradict press gallery claims

Senate press boss 'lies' to WND readers

Senate press cop breaks her silence

In secret meeting, press police yank WND day pass

Shake-up at the Senate Press Gallery

Press cops surrender, grant WND credentials
In a historic decision, Senate gatekeepers reverse denial, approve popular newssite

Thursday, September 12, 2002

By Paul Sperry

© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

WASHINGTON – After 19 months, two appeals, a massive letter-writing campaign by loyal readers, calls from members of Congress and the threat of a lawsuit, WorldNetDaily.com finally got its congressional press credentials.

In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Standing Committee of Correspondents for the Senate Press Gallery reversed its Jan. 29 Decision to deny the popular newssite a permanent press pass.

Such reversals have been rare in the Standing Committee's 123-year history.

And WND's admittance to the Senate Press Gallery marks a first for an independently owned Internet newspaper.

The fast-growing newssite, with more than 2.5 million readers, will now have the same unfettered access to the Capitol, including the Senate and House chambers and office buildings, afforded the Washington Post, New York Times, Associated Press and other venerable members of the Old Media.

The battle for access to Congress was critical in light of heightened security in Washington. Reporters need photo-ID hard passes to get into such federal buildings.

After the Standing Committee adjourned its meeting, committee lawyer, N. Frank Wiggins, notified WND's counsel Richard D. Ackerman of the U.S. Justice Foundation that the quasi-governmental panel of journalists had agreed to immediately and unconditionally grant permanent press credentials to WND's Washington bureau chief and WND founder and Editor Joseph Farah, who now works in Washington.

"I'm grateful this process is over so we can focus more attention on exposing fraud, waste, abuse and corruption in government – now with equal access to the corridors of power," Farah said.

On Aug. 30, Ackerman had advised Wiggins that the committee had 10 days to accredit WND or face a lawsuit alleging intentional violations of the First Amendment, intentional violations of the Ninth Amendment, business disparagement, defamation, intentional interference with economic advantage, anti-trust violations, violations of sunshine laws, invasion of privacy, and other unlawful conduct.

He also advised that the discrimination suit would name individual members of the committee and possibly their employers, and would seek punitive damages. Ackerman assembled a team of lawyers and paralegals in Washington in preparation for litigating the case, which would have argued and presented documentary and other evidence that the committee engaged in content-based discrimination.

Then, Wiggins last week notified Ackerman that the committee had scheduled a meeting on WND's appeal for Sept. 10. Ackerman held off on filing the suit.

"I am pleased that the First Amendment has been given the high reverence it deserves," Ackerman said in a Sept. 10 letter to Wiggins. "My clients will now be able to fully exercise their First Amendment right to gather and report news in and from the Capitol."

Farah says he vowed in a conversation earlier this year with Standing Committee Chairman William L. Roberts III of Bloomberg News that the committee's ruling to deny WND credentials, which he called politically motivated, "would not stand."

He says WND's case should pave the way for other New Media that want to freely cover Congress.

"I will never forget this two-year ordeal and, even though we received little help from our colleagues, I will do everything in our power to ensure that other journalists are not victimized in this way again," Farah said.

Committee member James Kuhnhenn of Knight Ridder, who cast one of the dissenting votes, told the Washington Times he objected to a series of unflattering stories about the committee written by WND's Washington bureau chief.

Calling it "extortion journalism," he complained it "has no place in our profession."

The stories – which exposed, among other things, the secretive procedures of the Standing Committee, the uneven standards applied to past applicants who were approved and the limited journalism background of a key gallery official up for promotion – incited WND readers to protest the committee's actions. Many wrote members of Congress, who, in turn, called the committee.

For example, an aide to Sen. George Allen, R-Va., told a concerned constituent Wednesday that a gallery official, responding to an earlier query about WND's case, had let the senator's office know that the committee had decided to reverse itself and accredit WND.

Ackerman had early last month filed a 31-page appeal brief with Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, which has governing authority over the Standing Committee.

But the Connecticut Democrat, former co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the scandal-ridden 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, failed to grant a hearing to WND.

Other WND readers threatened to boycott the news services of some of the media companies that employ members of the Standing Committee.

The other nay vote was cast by committee member Jack Torry of the Columbus Dispatch, who got in some hot water last month with Ohio readers of both the Dispatch and WND when he claimed in e-mails that WND was denied credentials because it didn't "publish its own content."

Roberts, committee secretary Donna Smith of Reuters, and Scott Shepard of Cox Newspapers all voted to reverse their earlier denial and accredit WND, according to Wiggins.

Previous stories:

Is Bloomberg the new 'bully' on block?

Press police accredited 'left-wing S.F. hippies'

Rogues’ gallery of press-pass holders

WND to sue Senate Press Gallery officials

Is Senate Press Gallery 'corrupt'?

Press cop has own qualification problems

Senator misled by press police

WND files appeal with Sen. Dodd, Speaker Hastert

Senate press police withhold public info

Press gallery backpedals from earlier WND stand

E-mails contradict press gallery claims

Senate press boss 'lies' to WND readers

Senate press cop breaks her silence

In secret meeting, press police yank WND day pass

Shake-up at the Senate Press Gallery

Click here for list of Senate Daily Press Gallery Members

Paul Sperry is Washington bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.