This is an emergency beehiv on the ongoing House of Representatives Press Pass Fiasco I’ve covered before. All thoughts mine and mine alone unless in blockquote.
Table of Contents
First, the TRO Denial Ruling
First, I know everyone should read the actual Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) ruling that came out today, so it’s HERE. The most important part of the ruling is this IMHO:
The Court acknowledges that both parties have legitimate interests at stake here, but because Plaintiffs have not shown a likelihood of success on the merits on their free press or due process claims, and because the House has a substantial interest in ensuring the reporters it permits to access the House floor meet the credential standards promulgated so the House may “debate and pass laws without interruption or lobbying in that space”… Having considered Plaintiffs’ motion for TRO (Dkt. No. 2), Defendants’ responses (Dkt. Nos. 13, 17), Plaintiffs’ reply (Dkt. No. 21), and the remainder of the record, Plaintiff’s motion is DENIED.
One can listen to the oral hearing here. With that, there are many issues at stake - and unlike most reporters am focusing on the court filings alongside plaintiffs’ orations, so let’s dig into it…
“Filing All Sorts of Things”
First, as Brandi Kruse said on her [Un]Divided program on March 9,
They've hired a pricey Seattle law firm to file and they were just filing all sorts of things over the weekend.
Well, I’ve actually read those “sorts of things” and those “sorts of things” are declarations plus responses to the TRO request that nobody is sharing from the US Federal Courts’ PACER website to the general public. Until now…
I have put the significant filings up on Scribd HERE. Why? I offer you this Heather “Newsbrooke” Brooke, Ph.D quote from her book The Silent State.;
Once the right of the people to see justice being done is eroded, it is not long before there is no justice at all.
Official Publicity Photo of Heather “Newsbrooke” Brooke, Ph.D.
Due to time and space constraints, I do not have the ability to cite each document filed. But I will point out that I uploaded a Harvard guide to press accreditation from Katherine George and more.
Is Brandi Kruse a Journalist or Lobbyist?
First, as Mrs. Kruse said on her 9 March program,
…There's this whole argument that I'm not a journalist, and I've said I'm not a journalist, but that doesn't mean I'm not a member of the press. I always want to differentiate between a journalist, a reporter, a political commentator, so you the viewer, the listener, the news consumer, know what you're getting. And I argue it's far better to have someone who says this is what my bias is. Now let me tell you about the news than have somebody who pretends I don't have a bias at all. Now let me tell you about the news, and then they do it in a very biased fashion.
Let’s also look at the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) that is our state law regarding who is the media:
(5) The term "news media" means:
(a) Any newspaper, magazine or other periodical, book publisher, news agency, wire service, radio or television station or network, cable or satellite station or network, or audio or audiovisual production company, or any entity that is in the regular business of news gathering and disseminating news or information to the public by any means, including, but not limited to, print, broadcast, photographic, mechanical, internet, or electronic distribution;
(b) Any person who is or has been an employee, agent, or independent contractor of any entity listed in (a) of this subsection, who is or has been engaged in bona fide news gathering for such entity, and who obtained or prepared the news or information that is sought while serving in that capacity; or
(c) Any parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of the entities listed in (a) or (b) of this subsection to the extent that the subpoena or other compulsory process seeks news or information described in subsection (1) of this section.
The problem is that Brandi is also involved with efforts to push initiatives - some of which I support - out the door. For instance, Brandi pretty much repeated advocacy for an initiative (that I happen to agree with) below:
There is also on pages 7-9 in House Clerk Bernard Dean’s declaration clear documentaiton of Kruse’s involvement in these initiatives. Added was Kruse’s statement of “I’m not a journalist”.
Additionally, the State Defendants’ Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction had this to add:
But even then, there’s other issues around Mrs. Kruse. One of them is her role as a Project 42 Ambassador with Project 42 sponsored segments on her UnDivided program, also supported by Patreon members like me occassionally.
There’s more smoke out there, but that could be discussed on a future Beehiv. I condemn the personal attacks on Mrs. Kruse and ask that they cease. Plus we are starting to get tangential from the press pass issue at hand…
Ari Hoffman Gives the Game Away…
Of course, co-plaintiff Ari Hoffman of KVI decided to… podcast his own trial. In Ari’s March 9 radio program, Hoffman shared with his listeners the true intent of the press access pass fiasco and litigating over those press passes:
We can get press passes to go cover the governor's office, but for some reason, we can't get them for the House of Representatives. Why is this a big deal? Well, the Democrats frequently have events for the press in the wings.
Now let me explain how the Capitol is set up for a minute. In the Capitol, you have the room that you see on TV, and this is very similar to what's in Washington, DC as well. The wings are these side rooms where you go off there, and there's little ante chambers you can go into, and offices you can go into. And sometimes they'll have their press events over there, or they'll talk to the press over there, when people like the Capitol Correspondence Association or the Washington State Legislature say, well, they can watch it on TVW, yeah, but can't ask your questions on TVW, and they say, Well, you can. You can ask a legislator a question anytime by emailing them, yeah, I'm not going to get back to you.
For example, I have emailed Bob Ferguson's office regularly since he became the governor, and I have never, never gotten a response. Katie Wilson never gotten a response for her office. Four years, four years of Bruce Harrell, never got a response from his office. Democrats, when they don't want to answer something, they just freeze you out. And sometimes you got to go find them. And sometimes you can find them in the Washington State Legislature, but here they're trying to stop us from doing so, because they're petty, petty, petty, petty, petty, petty, petty children. That's why.
The problem is the House Press Access rules state this:
. . .
i) Refrain from approaching legislators on the House floor or otherwise stepping on the House floor outside of going to and from the press tables. If a legislator approaches a member of the press and initiates a conversation, the press member may respond.
. . .
l) Understand and agree that press passes do not provide access to caucus media availabilities; caucuses make those determinations.
So Ari, Brandi and Jonathan will still be blocked from caucus media availabilities after all this effort. At least Ari’s wife Jessica Russak-Hoffman was able to rightfully get press access and legislator quotes on Jewish Advocacy Day, complete with a press pass from the Washington State House.
With that, like Ari, I have a bipartisan problem with legislators returning e-mails - and I will seriously consider naming names after legislative session. I just don’t think a press pass with the proffered rules I would have to agree to would resolve this issue.
Editorial Take: So “What’s Next”?
I am not at liberty to share publicly everything that I know or suspect about what’s next. Safe to say, the plaintiffs’ intend to keep litigating. After all, this was just a temporary restraining order attempt to get press passes. So what’s next…
What Should Absolutely NOT Be Next…
Well, we can start with Brandi Kruse calling members of the Capitol Correspondents’ Association at the House press table, “Those are the enemies of the American people” today. Then there’s Ari Hoffman doing an entire program today titled: “You don’t hate the mainstream media enough”. That would be a good start: Stop the sniping.
We can also add the trolling of Brandi Kruse on anti-social media. That’s wrong too and I don’t care for justification of the abuse. Stop, just stop.
What Should Be Next
What we need here is to return to traditional American values. What we also need is to realize that most of us are working in good faith to defend Washington State democratic norms - and our laws plus customs have not caught up.
Photo of Washington State Capitol at Night: Author
Maybe it’s time for press conferences for all media - traditional and activist. But press conferences with rules and an understanding you can only ask about bills. No conspiracy theory stuff, no sniping, no lobbying, none of that nonsense we have seen in other states. We can also see journalists study hard to ask good questions for their outlet’s visibility.
I will add that unlike other coverage of this issue - such as the Associated Press, I’ve attempted to let the players… play. I’ve also hyperlinked to primary source documents so readers can make up their own mind.
Why? Because maybe 2026 is the time my home state’s institutions started having more patriots take their side as Timothy Snyder has written about…
Finally, this missive is at 1704 words to honor the first regular newspaper of America. Namely the Boston News-Letter.