'Conservative' reporter refused entry to lawyers' event

They didn’t refuse me entry because the hall was full. Or claim I was too old to come in. Or too ugly. Or too white, too Southern, or too Christian.

No, they said I couldn’t sit at their lunch counter because I was conservative. They would admit only “unbiased” journalists. The News and Observer, the Star-News, the Associated Press.This was the word sent down to me by whoever was charged with keeping out the undesirables and the unwashed at the N.C. Bar Association’s Senatorial Forum this past week-end in Wilmington.

The debate brought together the three NC candidates for the U.S. Senate, a contest that will be decided in the general election, November 2, 2010.

I presume that the event drew a large crowd because starkly differing viewpoints would be offered. That’s what debates are all about. There’s the drama – thrust and parry, attack and defend. Freedom of expression. The American ideal, and all that, you know.

But they refused entry to a journalist who didn’t pass their litmus test. Conservative – therefore “biased”.
Their response to my request to cover the posh, clubby event was delivered by a press official for Senator Burr’s campaign organization.

She was only the messenger. She delivered the word. No offense there. She was not complicit in any way. But the “word” was plenty offensive.

A conservative journalist for Examiner.com, which is a leading online news and political presence, I had earlier talked with David Ward, press secretary in Senator Burr’s Washington office.

I indicated that I was interested in covering the Senatorial Forum for Examiner.com, where I have often scorched Washington liberals for their hypocrisy, duplicity, and downright old-timey in-your-face arrogance. David was, of course, cordial, helpful, as he always is, and agreed that he might try work out a personal interview with the Senator if time allowed.

I came with some pretty fair credentials. Brought no malice. Ready to work.

So never would I have suspected that the haughty barristers of North Carolina – defenders of the weak, the defenseless, the downtrodden, the falsely accused (and now, in 2010, defenders of liberal news organizations to the exclusion of all others) would pull a bone-headed stunt like this – out in the open, in their proudest moment – at their 2010 annual meeting, which featured an address by David Gergen, CNN senior political analyst, plus a televised debate amongst three feisty combatants.

And, lest I forget -- and possibly offend Ms. Elaine Marshall, who won her spurs fighting gangs, “big business”, druggies, scam artists, and other scoundrels as the State’s star crimebuster – all attorneys are not public defenders. And that’s more than a good thing. So much to prosecute these days, so little time to do it.

Of course, this is the age of do it onstage, whether it's Washington politics or a strip show. Look at one-term President Obama, former U.S. Senator Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, and many others who more than deserve their own Democratic Party. After all, they made it what it is. And may now live to regret it.

They plunder and pillage America, struggle mightily to dismantle the Constitution, pull back-room deals, lie and cheat, then emerge into the spotlight to announce that they have done what everyone knows they shouldn’t have. They actually seem proud of it

But I profess that I digress. The little incident of political media selectivity I experienced could have easily gone under the radar. Except for the fact that I’m not going to let it. Not because I am somebody important. Far from it. But I am a pretty fair reporter, with 50 years of experience in the media trenches, and I care deeply about the singularly American principle of a free press. It’s worth defending. And it should be defended, even shouted from the rooftops – that the North Carolina Bar Association turned away a conservative journalist at the door because he was “biased”.

The News & Observer, though, and the Star-News, and the Associated Press? They are not biased? Au contraire, me hearties. The old reliable N&O, and the NYT’s beach darling, the Star-News, are notorious for letting their liberal philosophy bleed off the editorial pages and infect their “news” sections. The Associated Press? Less so, for sure.

And by the way, let’s also nominate WRAL-TV to the hall of shame. That’s where conservative hero Jesse Helms held forth with courageous conservative editorials during his years there. That fact is probably not proudly recalled by the current occupants of the studio, nor by the top brass. The news purveyors there seem to have deserted their early roots and gone cynical, citified and liberal

WRAL-TV was cordially admitted to the NCBA ego feeding frenzy. Their representative had a reserved seat on the front row, as a member of the official “media panel”, selected to ask totally unbiased questions. I'm certain that was accomplished handily.

It’s fine that we have liberal news organizations, as long as they don’t deny their bias, then strike from ambush in their news coverage.

But censorship at the door by a professional organization with a State charter is way out of bounds. From a moral standpoint, and probably from a legal standpoint as well.

Should I sue?



NOTE: The North Carolina Bar Association is registered through the office of the Secretary of State (Elaine Marshall) with status listed as “active”. The organization was founded and chartered in 1899, and enjoys special tax privileges as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation with “perpetual duration”.

Does the N.C. Secretary of State know where her 501(c)3 chilren are? And what they’re doing?

http://www.ncbar.org/
http://www.sosnc.com/
http://www.elainemarshall.com/page/home
http://burr.senate.gov/public/
http://www.burrforsenate.org/

FOR MORE POSTS LIKE THIS FROM CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL WRITER VERNE STRICKLAND, VISIT:

http://www.examiner.com/x-42565-NC-7th-Elections-2010-Examiner