This
article by a Campus Progress reporter deserves attention.
It contains an email exchange that she had with an organizer for a conservative college student convention. She was denied a press pass to report on the event by ... get this ... the same guy who has received press passes from Campus Progress for the past two years straight!!!
Please read below the fold for the author's (Julie Brinn Siegel) email exchange with the jackass (remember this name: Jason Mattera):
Siegel:
I am interested in covering the Young America's Foundation National Conservative Student Conference at the beginning of August. Could you please let me know what the process is for obtaining press credentials? Thanks so much for your help!
Jason Jackass Mattera:
What news outlet do you work for?
Siegel:
Thanks for your quick reply. I'll be reporting for Campusprogress.org.
Jason Jackass Mattera:
LOL
Siegel:
Jason, I'm a little confused as to what that means. Could you please clarify?
Jason Jackass Mattera:
L·O·L
1) Laugh out Loud
2) Lots of Laugh
Siegel:
Does that mean you'll issue me credentials, or not?
Jason Jackass Mattera:
I'll tell you what ... Since you are student, I'll let you apply for a conference spot just like any other student. You must send in a resume, picture, and write a page on why you want to attend the National Conservative Student Conference. The essay should detail the activism you've done in college and what activism tools you expect to bring home from the conference. I can't promise anything, but that's your best shot.
(The conference costs $375 to attend.)
I wrote back that I was not interested in attending as a student but rather wanted to cover the event. After describing CampusProgress.org's qualifications as a publication (see below), I again requested that if the conference was open to the press, I be granted credentials. This was Mattera's response:
Our event is open to real members of the press. You will not receive press credentials. My advice for you is to watch it on C-SPAN. If you have a problem with that decision, you can complain to the Foundation's media department spokesman. Oh wait...that's ... me. :)
And here's the kicker:
That letting in a CampusProgress.org reporter was "laugh-out-loudable" to Mattera seems to indicate his disdain for people with whom he disagrees politically. Yesterday on our blog I expressed my belief that informal debates between friends with different views often yield the most creative solutions to problems. It is in the absence of such questioning that bad policy (like going to war in Iraq without fully thinking through the aftermath of invasion) is made. More than that, Mattera's sheer disdain indicates that YAF's conference might be a Coulter-esque bashing of ideological opponents full of name-calling and grandiose rhetoric. But I'll never know if I'm not permitted to cover it. (Watching on C-SPAN, per Mattera's suggestion, if C-SPAN does show the YAF conference, does not equal covering the event. You miss the hallway discussions, the tabling and the breakout sessions that C-SPAN cameras don't reach.)
Campus Progress and the Center for American Progress routinely grant press credentials to our events to conservative media outlets like CNS News, the Washington Times, Human Events, and others. The National Review covered our Campus Progress National Student Conference last year and again this year.
The author of those National Review pieces? Jason Mattera!
Yes--the same Jason Mattera who has refused Campus Progress a press credential for the Young America's Foundation annual conference has twice written web pieces about the Campus Progress annual conference - the second time, just days after he denied me access.
You have to read the whole article to get the full picture of how much this Mattera guy sucks.
But, oh wait, there's more.
Check out
this video of Mattera on Hardball. Real quick transcript in pertinent part:
Mattera: Our group supports President Bush in this war. We're looking to defeat the terrorists....
Matthews: You're 21 years old. Would you like to serve in this war?
Jason Jackass Mattera: I'm fighting the battle for ideas.
Matthews: I'm just asking a particular question. Would you like to enlist in this war?
Jason Jackass Mattera: No, 'cuz I'm fighting a separate battle. We're fighting a culture war here, but I'm also supporting the war in Iraq.
Matthews: What kind of people should fight in this war if not you?
Mattera: People that want to.
...
Matthews: What do you think of the phrase, "Chickenhawk"?
Mattera: I don't like [it].
Wow.