August 13, 2016
Eric Papenfuse/PennLive/Twitter
Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse has banned media access to PennLive, one of the area's biggest media outlets.
Each week, the politics blog PoliticsPa posts its Ups & Downs, a regular look at how the state's political players are faring. This week's "downs" were hardly surprising: John Dougherty, the Philly union leader whose house and offices were raided by the FBI, and Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who heard potentially damning testimony against her in the perjury trial she faces, trended down.
Joining them was Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse, but not because of a gaffe or accusations of corruption. Instead:
"We’ll be giving the Harrisburg Mayor a down arrow every week until he lifts his ridiculous ban of PennLive. This is now week nine."
It's now been more than two months since Papenfuse has barred media access to PennLive, the online home of The Patriot-News, the largest newspaper serving the Harrisburg area. It's the equivalent of Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney refusing to speak to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The mayor's beef? Well, pretty much everything about PennLive.
Papenfuse officially cut the news outlet off in June, with his spokesperson informing the site that their reporters would no longer be invited to weekly briefings and that she was not to respond to their inquiries.
He told local news station ABC27 that he doesn't view the site as a legitimate news outlet, citing the comment sections on the outlet's articles where they traffic "hate speech.”
“I think PennLive is the equivalent to Gawker (a self-proclaimed gossip blog), not the equivalent of the Washington Post, and it needs to be understood and treated as such," Papenfuse told the station.
Interestingly enough, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump cut off the Post's press access for similar reasons, ABC27 pointed out. We'll get back to Trump and how he ties in later.
But first, it should be noted that Papenfuse's decision to ban PennLive comes rather conveniently after the outlet published two stories about the mayor that were less than flattering.
PennLive looked into the overtime pay practices of a bookstore and warehouse Papenfuse and his wife own and operate, and pointed out that he owns several properties that surround two bars the city is trying to close by deeming them nuisance businesses.
Now, Papenfuse has said these two stories aren't the reason for the ban, instead going much, much broader with his reasoning. He accuses PennLive of participating in a "clicks-for-cash" business model and allowing nasty comments on articles to be freely posted.
His stance led to a painfully awkward exchange with a PennLive reporter at a press conference about an upcoming July 4 celebration, which can be viewed below:
Jack Murtha of the Columbia Journalism Review took a look at the odd situation, and much to Papenfuse's delight, PennLive's content director Mike Feeley told Murtha that yes, staffers are reviewed partly based on the amount of page views they get.
@jackmurtha Good work getting @PennLive to admit they evaluate journalists by clicks - question their track record holding pols accountable
— Eric Papenfuse (@EricPapenfuse) June 17, 2016
But Murtha's assessment of the situation was hardly an endorsement of Papenfuse's ban. In fact, it was quite the opposite:
...this policy of silence deprives the public of the full story. And the mayor’s move will also surely send a message to other news outlets: Don’t get on Papenfuse’s bad side, or you could be next.
Back to Trump. Murtha doesn't view the ban as an isolated incident. Instead, he views it as a sort of trickle-down effect from The Donald brazenly cutting off major media outlets like BuzzFeed, Politico and, of course, The Washington Post.
Murtha cited similar examples of officials blocking media in Sacramento and Tampa Bay that have occurred following Trump's political rise.
While politicians going silent on reporters is nothing new, the blatant manner in which Trump does it could make it more prevalent, Murtha writes:
Politicians are like anyone else, in that they admire and emulate the big dogs in their business. Papenfuse may not intend to mirror Trump, but that’s what his PennLive strategy accomplishes, regardless of his motivation. Time will tell if Trump’s brazen disrespect for journalists trickles down to others.
There doesn't seem to be an end in sight in the standoff between Papenfuse and PennLive. The mayor has said he won't lift the ban until the outlet changes its business model, something the outlet has not indicated intentions of doing.
Recent PennLive stories regarding local government have been noticeably missing quotes from Papenfuse, with the outlet sometimes relying on quotes given to other newspapers.
In the meantime, Papenfuse will continue to rack up down arrows.
We'll be giving Mayor Papenfuse a down arrow for every week his ban of @PennLive continues https://t.co/3CjTrkr45q pic.twitter.com/PmQ8TICOFu
— Sy Snyder (@PoliticsPA) June 24, 2016
