As a veteran journalist in Colorado, it wasn\u2019t Sandra Fish\u2019s first time reporting on the state GOP assembly. But it was her first time getting kicked out.<\/p>\n
The Colorado Republican Party expelled Fish from its event in Pueblo, Colo., on Saturday after she was told the party chairman finds her reporting \u201cvery unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
A sheriff\u2019s deputy escorted the longtime reporter out, drawing backlash from lawmakers from both sides of the aisle and fellow journalists who criticized the move as an affront to democracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfair to do this,\u201d Fish said Monday. \u201cIt concerns me that people only want the information they agree with presented, and if they disagree with something, they want it concealed from the public. And that\u2019s not how democracy works, no matter who\u2019s in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colorado GOP Chairman Dave Williams, a Donald Trump supporter who is running for a seat in the U.S. House, said he stands by the ejection.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make no apologies for kicking out a fake journalist,\u201d Williams said in a text message Monday, echoing Trump\u2019s oft-used epithet of \u201cfake news.\u201d Williams added that the Colorado Sun, a nonprofit news outlet founded in 2018, \u201cis just an extension of the Democrat Party\u2019s PR efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams declined to say what has been unfair about Fish\u2019s reporting.<\/p>\n
Colorado Sun editor Larry Ryckman said it\u2019s \u201ca sad day when politicians get to decide who can and cannot report for the American people,\u201d according to the paper. He defended Fish\u2019s reporting, calling her an \u201cexperienced, accomplished journalist,\u201d the Sun reported.<\/p>\n
Fish, 66, has been a reporter since 1982; she has covered Colorado\u2019s Democratic and Republican parties for the past two decades. Some of her recent reporting details how the Colorado GOP, under Williams\u2019s leadership, paid for mailers that criticized one of Williams\u2019s congressional primary opponents and a newspaper in Colorado Springs. Last year, Fish reported on the state GOP\u2019s fundraising woes.<\/p>\n
Colorado has voted for Democratic candidates in the past four presidential elections; Williams has led the state Republican Party since March 2023.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Fish planned to cover the GOP assembly \u2014 an election-year meeting to nominate representatives to the Republican National Committee and adopt a party platform.<\/p>\n
Early that morning, a party representative told Fish that she would not be permitted at the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state party has made the decision that today\u2019s assembly is not an \u2018open\u2019 press event. This is to inform you that your name is not included in my final press credentials list currently being typed up,\u201d Eric Grossman said in a 3:45 a.m. text message to Fish. \u201cThe state chairman believes current reporting to be very unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fish decided to go anyway. Around 8:30 a.m., she walked into the gathering at the Colorado State Fairgrounds with a press credential in hand, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave me a press pass,\u201d Fish said. \u201cThe assembly was about to start, and some of the security staff at the event came up and said I needed to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n
A security worker said the event organizers didn\u2019t want Fish to be there, the reporter recalled.<\/p>\n
She declined to leave.<\/p>\n
Grossman, who had texted Fish early Saturday morning, approached her and reiterated that she must leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to ask him what was unfair about my reporting and other questions. And he was like, Get out of here,\u201d Fish said.<\/p>\n
She stayed. Then law enforcement arrived.<\/p>\n
Video from the stands shows an official with the Pueblo County Sheriff\u2019s Office tell Fish that she wasn\u2019t allowed to be there, and an event staffer said she was given a press pass \u201cerroneously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, Fish was escorted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical parties are private organizations that, I would argue, are doing public business, in terms of nominating candidates on behalf of their party,\u201d Fish said.<\/p>\n
The Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists said the move \u201crepresents a hostile disregard for the fundamental standards of transparency, accountability and press freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cInterfering with and attempting to suppress journalists from covering matters of civic engagement is an offense to democracy,\u201d the group said on its website.<\/p>\n
On social media, Republican state Rep. Matt Soper said political parties \u201cshouldn\u2019t be ejecting reporters from meetings\u201d regardless of disagreements.<\/p>\n
Democratic state Sen. Nick Hinrichsen said the incident was an \u201cegregious abuse of power and violation of trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Colorado GOP chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown called the action \u201cdangerous\u201d and said \u201ctransparency is necessary for our nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state Republican Party has publicly defended the move, criticizing journalists and state lawmakers who pushed back on Fish\u2019s removal, including members of its own party. That bipartisan criticism of the ejection may have influenced a primary endorsement: The Colorado GOP announced Monday on X that it was endorsing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) in the state\u2019s 4th Congressional District after opponent Deborah Flora called Fish\u2019s removal a \u201cviolation of the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a post responding to Flora\u2019s criticism, the state party accused her of \u201cboot licking fake journalists who only help Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fish said she is undeterred by her ejection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to cover the contests that I\u2019m assigned, and I\u2019m going to show up for debates and other activities,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As a veteran journalist in Colorado, it wasn\u2019t Sandra Fish\u2019s first time reporting on the state GOP assembly. But it was her first time getting kicked out. The Colorado Republican Party expelled Fish from its event in Pueblo, Colo., on Saturday after she was told the party chairman finds her reporting \u201cvery unfair.\u201d A sheriff\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}