Kudos to Blue Nation Review for catching this:
The event was part of a “Congressional Conversations Initiative” series that will also include Nancy Pelosi. OSU bills the series as a discussion “on improving legislative process and American governance, public policy, and public service,” but news broke on Friday afternoon that officials refused to allow a reporter from the Lantern to attend Portman’s talk.
Moritz chief communications officer Barbara Peck told BNR that the reporter, Leah McClure, whom the Lantern says is “a third-year in journalism and economics and a student,” wasn’t allowed in because she wasn’t registered.
Pelosi’s event on April 22 is open to press, and according to Peck, it was Portman’s decision to bar reporters from attending his talk, not the school’s.
Here’s a little more info from OSU’s newspaper, The Lantern:
Leah McClure, a third-year in journalism and economics and a student enrolled in The Lantern independent study course, said she was asked to leave by Moritz per the request of Portman’s communication team.
“I asked (chief communications officer for the Moritz College of Law Barbara Peck) if I would be allowed to cover the event for The Lantern, and she said that she was pretty sure that would be fine but that she would have to double check with Rob Portman’s team,” McClure said. “About 15 minutes later, another person who works for Moritz College of Law came in and asked me to leave.”
In a subsequent interview, Peck said the event at OSU was not open to the media and that the Portman campaign did not want media there.
She added that a press advisory would normally be sent out prior to events occurring at the college.
“Usually we discuss it in advance. Normally we work that out in advance, and we would send out an advisory, saying, ‘Hey, this person is coming,’” Peck said.
“Anytime we have a speaker come in, we work out in advance who’s invited, whether media is invited, whether we’re tweeting, whether we’re podcasting. You know, what are the parameters for the speech?”
Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Sen. Portman, said the senator attended the university event to talk about drug addiction and human trafficking. He added that “it was a closed-press event.”
Portman was on campus to participate as a speaker in the first of two Congressional Conversations events, which are part of a series hosted by the Moritz College of Law and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs.
The series is set to focus on improving “legislative process and American governance, public policy, and public service,” according to the OSU Democracy Studies website.
That’s pretty pathetic of Portman to be scared to talk in front of a student journalist. Then again, it’s not like he courting the youth vote to help him win re-election. One thing for sure is that Portman is running scared from former Governor Ted Strickland (D. OH). We have a great shot at taking this seat. Click here to donate and get involved with Strickland’s campaign.