Heated NH House E-mails on Reporter Ban

The New Hampshire House email service was ablaze during the weekend with comments from members of both political parties reacting to the recent action by NH House Speaker , R-Mont Vernon, .

The commenting started on July 6, when state Rep. , D-Concord, posted one of the Concord NH Patch stories that offered video footage of two . Watrous wrote, “Restricting the freedom of the press reflects poorly on the Speaker and on the whole House.”

Early into Saturday morning, state Rep. Timothy Horrigan, D-Durham, stated, “This is another example of the majority leadership's Sore Winner-ism.”

State Rep. Frederick Leonard, R-Rochester, countered that legislators should rally around the decision by the speaker.

“Whether you disagree with Speaker O'Brien's leadership style or not, linking him to one of was completely wrong,” he wrote. “This is not a Democrat or Republican thing ... the Monitor needs to understand they have a certain responsibility to report and editorialize honestly and respectfully regardless of political party ... many people (House members) have complained about the lack of civility in today's political discourse ... consequently, yesterday's barring of the Monitor from the press event was not only appropriate, it was necessary.”

A few minutes later, State Rep. , R-Brookline, while hoping that representatives were having a safe and enjoyable summer, agreed with Leonard.

“The Monitor has a right to say what they want to,” he stated. “We, as elected officials, don't have to condone it. Or feed into it. One can take a position against our actions, however, when they are unprofessional, we can chose to not involve ourselves with them. Rep. Horrigan or Rep. Watrous, you both, in my opinion would have the same right if you felt specific members of the press were unprofessional also.”

Later in the day, state Rep. , D-Hopkinton, who is also an attorney, quoted the state Constitution, Article 22, which states: “Free speech and Liberty of the Press are essential to the security of Freedom in a State: They ought, therefore, to be inviolably preserved.” Richardson stated, “It seems to me that the Speaker has a right to say anything he wants outside of his office, but when he invites the press to his official, public office in the State House for a press conference, all of the press has a right to be there. Otherwise it makes him look like an official using his public office to manipulate (control) the press, which i hope we can all agree violates the constitution.”

State Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, questioned Statehouse Democrats for making a fuss about what O’Brien did while ignoring similar actions by President Barack Obama when he barred Fox News for asking tough questions. He also called for a complete boycott of “the Concord Liberal Monitor.” Richardson countered that he hadn’t heard of such an incident and said that the Statehouse “is the people's house, and when a public official is holding a press conference in the State House, all of the press has a right to attend in my opinion.”

Later in the evening, state Rep. , D-Portsmouth, offered a long, sarcastic response, saying representations sounded like children complaining like they weren’t invited to a birthday party.

“The fact that I see adult men (in this particular case) arguing over email that the Speaker was right to ban the Press because they were "unfriendly" to him (wahhhhhh!),” he wrote, “and had a cartoon that hurt his feelings (boo hoo!) is absurd! how old are you all? Are you grown ups or 7 yr olds? … This has been the single most embarrassing conversation I have witnessed in my (to-date) 6 years of service to the NH House and people of New Hampshire.”

Early Sunday morning, state Rep. , R-Fremont, tried to lighten the email thread by suggesting that people “get out and enjoy” the state.

“It's clear that the two main papers in our fair state are trash rags one way or the other (with the UL being rather bi-polar lately, and the Monitor being Pravda on the Merrimack) so just get your news on the net like most others these days,” he wrote.

Another, state Rep. Steven Lindsey, D-Keene, suggested that other journalists should let O’Brien known that they won’t be covering any other press avails until the Monitor reporters are let back in, as a show of solidarity. After Leonard forwarded a link from ABC News from October 2008 that covered Obama no longer allowing Fox News to cover campaign events, Lindsey countered: “I guess my kindergarten teacher was wrong! Two wrongs do make a right.”

By Sunday afternoon, representatives began to request that members engaged in the interaction to stop hitting “reply to all” when offering comments on the thread.