Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

2 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

2 hours ago

US Electric Vehicle Tax Breaks Will Expire on Sept. 30

21 hours ago

Eyeing Arctic Dominance, Trump Bill Earmarks $8.6 Billion for US Coast Guard Icebreakers

22 hours ago

Trump’s Sweeping Tax-Cut and Spending Bill Wins Congressional Approval

23 hours ago

Americans Celebrate Their Independence With Record-Breaking Travel Numbers

1 day ago

US Supreme Court to Decide Legality of Transgender School Sports Bans

1 day ago

Nvidia Set to Become the World’s Most Valuable Company in History

1 day ago

Poll: 41% in US ‘Extremely Proud’ to Be American, Near Historic Low

1 day ago
Hypocritical Newsom Touts Freedom While Disrespecting Reporters
By admin
Published 2 years ago on
January 13, 2023

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A reporter for West Virginia’s public broadcasting system was fired last month after exposing the state health agency’s abuse of disabled people.

Dan Walters

CalMatters

Opinion

Amelia Ferrell Knisley said she was axed after ignoring orders to stop reporting that the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources was hiding information about treatment of its disabled clients, including allegations of patient dumping and warehousing.

Knisley’s reportage prompted calls by legislative leaders for an official investigation, but, she said, orders to fire her came from the broadcasting system’s boss, Butch Antolini, a former press secretary for Gov. Jim Justice.

It would be easy to dismiss Knisley’s dismissal as an isolated incident in a backward state dominated by self-serving clutch of right-leaning politicians.

Not so. Throughout the world, politicians of all stripes try to control what’s reported about their activities. In autocratic regimes, such as China, Iran or Russia, the suppression is naked. State-owned media spew propaganda and journalists who don’t toe the party line are repressed – or worse.

Four years ago, agents of Saudi Arabia assassinated dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. American journalist Austin Tice was kidnapped in 2012 while reporting on events in Syria and his family has heard nothing from him ever since. In 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and later decapitated in Pakistan.

American politicians don’t kidnap or kill journalists, but when a sitting president of the United States points to reporters and calls them “enemies of the people,” as Donald Trump did, he’s making them potential targets of violence.

Newsom’s Naked Disrespect for the First Amendment

Last Friday, Gavin Newsom was sworn in for a second term as California’s governor, standing on the Capitol’s steps after leading a march down Capitol Mall. It was meant to commemorate the violent assault on the nation’s Capitol exactly two years earlier by fervent Trump supporters, seeking to block Congress from ratifying Joe Biden’s election as president.

Newsom devoted much of his 22-minute inaugural address to depicting California as a model of tolerance and freedom and Republican-led states as bastions of repression.

Afterwards, Newsom’s press office described the speech as “lifting up California’s work to protect and advance the fundamental rights and freedoms under attack across the country amid rising extremism and oppression, and underscoring the state’s commitment to continue leading the way forward to prosperity and progress for all.”

The message, however, didn’t ring true for the journalists who were covering Newsom’s carefully staged inaugural celebration because the governor’s operatives had been harassing them for trying to do their jobs.

During the march, Angela Hart, a reporter for Kaiser Health News, tweeted, “@Gavin Newsom leading a march for ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy” ahead of his inauguration, however the governor and his team has restricted press access to the march after the photo opp (and) we’re not allowed to follow the march and do our jobs.”

CalMatters reporter Alexei Koseff echoed Hart, tweeting, “Governor’s press office and campaign largely focused on keeping the media away from this media stunt of a march to kick off Newsom’s second inaugural, including threats that we would be blocked from attending the speech.”

This was not an isolated instance of Newsom’s disdain for the professional journalists who cover his governorship. He is notoriously thin-skinned about coverage that portrays him in other than a heroic light – such as Koseff’s revelation in 2020 about his notorious maskless and hypocritical partying with lobbyists at a high-end Napa restaurant.

Newsom’s media operatives give special access to reporters deemed to be friendly while minimizing contact with others who might ask questions that he doesn’t want to answer.

So much for California being a beacon of openness and freedom.

About the Author

Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. He began his professional career in 1960, at age 16, at the Humboldt Times. For more columns by Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary.

Make Your Voice Heard

GV Wire encourages vigorous debate from people and organizations on local, state, and national issues. Submit your op-ed to rreed@gvwire.com for consideration. 

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

DON'T MISS

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Tops as 2025’s Largest Wildfire in California

DON'T MISS

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

DON'T MISS

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

DON'T MISS

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

DON'T MISS

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

DON'T MISS

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

DON'T MISS

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

DON'T MISS

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

UP NEXT

Presidential Election Reveals Big Shift in California Voting Patterns. Will It Last?

UP NEXT

From Victims to Perpetrators: Israeli Soldiers’ Nazi Comparisons and the Unfolding War Crimes in Gaza

UP NEXT

Dear Mayor and City Council, Fresno’s Housing Bottlenecks Are a Modern Form of Redlining

UP NEXT

A Path Forward on Immigration Reform That Strengthens America

UP NEXT

Israel Faces Genocide Accusations Amid Gaza Food Aid Killings

UP NEXT

I Detest Netanyahu, but on Some Things He’s Actually Right

UP NEXT

Much of LA’s Community of Immigrants Is Hiding, Leaving a Hole in the Fabric of the City

UP NEXT

Things Netanyahu Might Say if Injected With Truth Serum

UP NEXT

California Politicians Ignore Ag’s Troubles, but Boost Movie Business

UP NEXT

Trump’s Courageous and Correct Decision to Bomb Iran

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

1 hour ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

2 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

2 hours ago

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

2 hours ago

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

2 hours ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Rachelle Maria Blanco

2 hours ago

Russia Pounds Kyiv With Largest Drone Attack, Hours After Trump-Putin Call

2 hours ago

Boxer Chavez Jr Expected to Be Deported to Mexico to Serve Sentence, Mexican President Says

2 hours ago

Markets’ 90-Day Tariff Pause Rollercoaster Nears an Uncertain End

2 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Willing to Let Migrant Farm Laborers Stay in US

2 hours ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign a massive package of tax and spending cuts into law at a ceremony at the White House on Friday, ...

33 minutes ago

President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 12, 2025. (Reuters File)
33 minutes ago

Trump to Sign Tax-Cut and Spending Bill in July 4 Ceremony

The Madre Fire burning near New Cuyama has scorched 52,592 acres as of Friday, July 4, 2025, morning, making it California’s largest wildfire of the year, with only 10% containment and multiple evacuation zones in place. (CalFire)
40 minutes ago

Madre Fire Spurs Evacuations Across 3 Counties, Tops as 2025’s Largest Wildfire in California

59 minutes ago

Clovis, Sanger, Madera, and Bass Lake Will Light the Sky With Fireworks Shows Tonight

A pumpjack operates at the Vermilion Energy site in Trigueres, France, June 14, 2024. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Oil Dips Ahead of Expected OPEC+ Output Increase

Palestinians gather to collect what remains of relief supplies from the distribution center of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 5, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

613 Killed at Gaza Aid Distribution Sites, Near Humanitarian Covoys, Says UN

Billy Wayne Sinisgalli, a 54-year-old transient known locally as Wayne, was found dead along a rural Fresno road Wednesday in what authorities are investigating as a suspicious death. (Fresno County SO)
2 hours ago

Fresno County Authorities Investigating Suspicious Death of Transient Man

Israel Builds a Fence Around the West Bank
2 hours ago

West Bank Town Becomes ‘Big Prison’ as Israel Fences It In

A view of the site of Thursday's Israeli strike that damaged and destroyed residential buildings, at Shati (Beach) refugee camp, in Gaza City, July 4, 2025. (Reuters/Mahmoud Issa)
2 hours ago

Israeli Military Kills 20 in Gaza as Trump Awaits Hamas Reply to Truce Proposal

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend