OPINION:
Charlie Kratovil, editor of New Brunswick Today, had a very interesting weekend a while back. The editor of the small local paper must have drawn the short straw to cover education conference put on by a non-profit called “Project Ready,” in his publication’s namesake, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Mr. Kratovil arrived as a fully credentialed journalist and was given permission to film the conference, and, doing his due diligence, sat through what I can only imagine were hours of painfully boring speeches by God only knows.
After hours of filming, fellow journalist and White House Correspondent for the Urban Radio Networks April Ryan took the stage. Mr. Kratovil kept his camera rolling, intrigued and ready to report on what Ms. Ryan had to say. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to him, her team didn’t want him to be there.
A few minutes after taking the stage, her bodyguard/goon Joel Morris stole Mr. Kratovil’s camera and took it to the lobby. Mr. Kratovil gave chase to get his camera back and when he caught up to Mr. Morris, he was put in some sort of painful arm lock and dragged out of the building against his will. Again, remember that Mr. Kratovil was a fully credentialed journalist who had already been filming at the conference hours before Ms. Ryan took the stage.
What did Mr. Kratovil do to deserve this? Did he yell at April Ryan? Did he interrupt her speech? Was he rude in any way whatsoever?
No. He merely wanted to report on a conference. You know, what journalists do.
Unfortunately for Charlie Kratovil, he’s not an elite progressive journalist, so he can’t just do whatever he wants to do and get away with it.
April Ryan on the other hand is in the club, and could get away with murder (or having her team injure someone). The epitome of media bias, April Ryan has become one of the top progressive activists in the White House Press pool. If Jim Acosta drops the ball in raising one of the Democratic National Committee’s weekly talking points, she will pick it up for the rebound. And even when he makes his points, she’s always willing to take it a step further.
Who can forget the day she asked former White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders whether or not “this administration think(s) that slavery is wrong?” Ms. Ryan followed up by tweeting that she was silent in answering — implying that the administration didn’t think it was wrong, when in reality, the question was so obnoxious and absurd that it deserved no recognition.
Why does she ask those questions? And why would a journalist spend her time away from the White House Press Room doing nothing other than criticizing the president?
In another generation, such insanely obvious activism may have had her banned from the White House Press Room, but not now. In 2019, elite progressive journalists say and do whatever they want because the game has changed.
This all started when Barack Obama was leaving office. There were moving tributes and tears … seriously, literal tears from journalists who were in the White House Press pool covering him. They didn’t even pretend to mask their bias.
Now, that doesn’t cover all of the media there — they divided into two groups. One group actually wants to work in journalism: They’re the people you don’t know the names of and can’t pick out of a lineup. The other group, the elite progressive journalists, are only there to put on a show for their audiences at home, on MSNBC, CNN and whatever other outlets where they find value. They aren’t there to ask serious questions; they’re there to get famous by any means necessary.
April Ryan, like Jim Acosta, always has a talking point queued up and ready to fire at the president or the press secretary. They don’t have the desire to learn and report, they just want to be known. Ask yourself, “What is the Urban Radio Networks?”
As of my writing this, they have 6,300 likes on Facebook and 3,787 followers on Twitter. April Ryan on the other has had nearly 20,000 likes on Facebook and 562,000 on Twitter. Is Urban Radio Networks even a legitimate outlet? Have you ever heard/seen of a story of hers anywhere? Or is she just spouting talking points and showing up on CNN and MSNBC?
We all know the answers to those questions.
Ms. Ryan has been given a platform to say whatever critical thing she’d like for TV cameras at the White House, so she can then go outside and criticize the White House nonstop.
And why do I bring up all of these points? Because after all of her criticism of the Trump administration, lack of reporting, and free camera time to self-promote, she has the nerve to claim that freedom of the press is under attack — which you can learn about from her book, “Under Fire: Reporting From the Front Lines of the Trump White House” ($1.99 used online at Barnes and Nobles dot com).
Not once has April Ryan, or anyone else (aside from the time that Jim Acosta put his hands on that intern or that time the Playboy reporter wanted to fight Sebastian Gorka) been stopped at the White House from saying what they wanted to say and reporting freely — why? Because they’re part of an exclusive club of elite progressive journalists who believe they have the right to say — and do anything they want — including having one of their goons rough up and remove the press freedom of a real journalist.
Elite progressive journalist privilege is real — and it’s a real problem for America.
• Tim Young is a political comedian and author of “I Hate Democrats/I Hate Republicans” (Post Hill Press).
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