The Standing Committee of Correspondents, a Washington D.C. based group of reporters who write about politics and economics, have issued a formal complaint to leaders of both the House and the Senate, claiming that recent changes in security procedures is making it harder for journalists to reach legislators and their staff for interviews.
In a statement released through national news media and sent to all members of Congress in a letter, the Committee sites several instances of reporters being denied access to a Congressman’s office during critical voting measures, on the claim that the current legislation was increasing threatening communications and so a ‘soft lockdown’ was in place to protect the legislator from the possibility of an attack.
The Committee has also stated that journalists are being discriminated against by a new ‘need to know’ rule in Congress that allows legislators to limit the amount of information they release based on a ‘need to know’ by correspondents. This allows members of Congress to give more information to reporters they consider to be friendly, and less information to reporters who they consider to be ‘less friendly’ or ‘hostile.’
Social media giants like Facebook and Google, who use news aggregators that have little to do with actual reporting and much to do with algorithms, are remaining silent on the controversy so far.