The hotly contested special election for a Georgia congressional seat took on the added drama of a media war Monday as both campaigns reportedly barred news operations unfriendly to their cause.
The conservative Washington Free Beacon said its reporter was escorted out of a campaign event Monday night before Democrat Jon Ossoff was scheduled to speak on the eve of the election.
And a reporter from liberal ThinkProgress said she was barred from events by Republican Karen Handel.
Journalists ripped the actions on Twitter.
CNN’s Jake Tapper called both actions cases of “bipartisan petulance and thin skin.”
HuffPost’s senior politics editor Sam Stein responded to Scher’s tweet, calling the shutout “crap” and urging other journalists to object.
CNN justice reporter Evan Perez pointed out that the “ways of Washington” have already infected the campaign.
BuzzFeed’s Washington bureau chief, Kate Nocera, said both news outlets should be allowed to cover both candidates because members of Congress should be “able to handle questions they don’t like.” And The New York Times’ Sopan Deb weighed in, too.
The controversy erupted just hours before the polls were to open Tuesday to decide who will represent Georgia’s 6th Congressional District. The winner will be seen not only as a possible predictor of the 2018 midterm elections in the wake Donald Trump’s ascendance to the White House, but, in the short term, the chances of Trumpcare driving out Obamacare.
The HuffPost reached out to both campaigns regarding barring reporters from events Monday, but neither immediately responded.