Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Ronchetti spent the better part of 25 years in TV newsrooms. While many might view his meteorologist job as only journalism-adjacent, he was close to journalists for long enough to learn that towing a party line is the work of propagandists: real journalists ask uncomfortable questions.
That is the job.
At a campaign event Sunday in Carlsbad that featured Ronchetti and Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis, at least one news outlet was blocked from covering the event.
Marisa Demarco, editor-in-chief of Source New Mexico, which is part of the national, nonprofit news organization States Newsroom, tweeted on Sunday evening that the Ronchetti campaign denied entry to Source New Mexico’s Senior Reporter Shaun Griswold.
Source NM requested press credentials for Sunday’s event on Friday morning, Demarco said.
“I heard from the campaign manager (Saturday) night that he would not issue press credentials because of a critical article I published weeks ago by a freelance reporter,” she tweeted.
Undeterred, Griswold requested a free, regular-admission ticket in order to attend the event and report on it.
Griswold said security personnel at the door had a photo of him and denied his entry.
Politicians can invite whomever they want to political rallies. Courts have decided that such things are private events, even if on rented public grounds. As any third-grader knows, you get to invite whomever you want to your party. However, as any good parent of a third-grader knows, it’s far better in the long run for your kid to be gracious with the invitations — invite the new kid, be a better person.
But what constitutes bad manners for a third grader comes across as deeply troubling behavior from an adult angling for the highest elected office in the state. Targeting and ejecting specific journalists from a political rally because their publication wrote things you don’t like bodes ill for transparency and evenhandedness in Ronchetti’s potential administration.
In New Mexico, both Democrats and Republicans have a history of poor press relations in the governor’s office. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s absurdly abrasive first press secretary made few friends in the state’s press corps, and the Susanna Martinez administration notoriously didn’t answer questions from journalists and publications it didn’t like. But singling out and excluding reporters from simply watching you speak during quasi-public events — before even gaining office — is a troubling new low.
Ronchetti has never held elected office, much less run an entire state, so much of what happens as he campaigns will be new for him. And here’s a heads-up: should he win his bid for the governor’s office, his first act will be to take an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
As a refresher, here’s the text of its First Amendment, which was made first because the framers saw it as the most important:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Transparency with the press is a hallmark of governments and politicians with nothing to hide.
Full disclosure: Society of Professional Journalists Rio Grande Chapter board president Ryan Lowery wrote the article Demarco referenced, which focused on Ronchetti’s claims that he didn’t know who two violent extremist groups were and his refusal to denounce their actions. Lowery said the campaign would not agree to an interview for the article and that multiple opportunities for comment were extended to the campaign prior to publication.
