But moments before the Nov. 14 media event began, the Oakland Police Department barred the Peralta Citizen reporter from entering, a remarkable blockade against a college newspaper covering a national story about beloved Laney coach John Beam, who was fatally shot on campus a day earlier. The reason? The Citizen reporter an associate editor had not first obtained a police-issued press credential.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
Jacqui Heinrich calls it as she sees it. As one of Fox News' senior White House Correspondents, co-anchor of The Sunday Briefing, and the future president of the White House Correspondents' Association, she has earned a reputation for asking tough, necessary questions regardless of who's in power. I build rapport no matter who is in office by approaching my job with integrity, Heinrich told Mediate founding editor Colby Hall on this week's episode of Press Club.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told Axios the directive is the result of a process that kicked off this summer "to thoroughly vet all external engagements to ensure the department does not lend its name and credibility to organizations, forums and events that run counter to the values of this administration." It comes as the Pentagon also rolls out rules that require reporters to sign a pledge not to gather information that hasn't been officially authorized for release, or risk losing their credentials.
After navigating a half-hour queue to get through security, a group of us were told we needed to go back outside, walk 10 minutes and then go through security again to reach the media centre. Which would have been fine except the staff at the new entrance had been given instructions not to admit the media, and told us to go back to where we had started and queue for security a third time.