There’s an episode of The West Wing during which, in the midst of a crisis, a television reporter asks Press Secretary C.J. Cregg an out-of-left-field question about the dress she’s wearing, then goes on the air and suggests that Cregg isn’t in the loop because she’s a “clotheshorse” who might have “missed some information during her wardrobe changes.” Cregg responds by humiliating the reporter at the next briefing, then taking away her White House credentials. “You’ll call my office every day,” Cregg says, “and I’ll decide if you get into the room.”
That bit of televised fiction comes to mind in the wake of the lawsuit filed last week against White House officials by African journalist Simon Ateba. He contends he’s being discriminated against because under newly adopted rules, he can no longer get proper press credentials. The Biden administration says Ateba’s so-called hard pass was yanked because he’s constantly disruptive. Ateba insists that he lost access because of objections to his “viewpoint.”
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