Partly in response to a reporter's run-in with FCC security guards, Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) have asked the Senate Commerce Committee to hold a hearing on the state of the media.
Both are members of the committee and both sent a letter to the FCC seeking info on what happened May 18 when a reporter said he was pinned against the wall by security guards for trying to ask a question of a commissioner after a meeting.
The senators cited Trump Administration hostility toward the press, plus the proliferation of "fake news," for wanting the committee to hold the hearing--they said the last committee hearing on the state of journalism was in 2009 and that a new look was needed to "Refresh the record."
“The journalism industry is grappling with a changing media landscape: from the changing dynamics of how people access news, to changing financial calculations, to the proliferation of so-called ‘fake news’ (both actual disinformation campaigns and the use of the term to slander legitimate news reporting), to a challenging relationship between news media and the Executive branch,” the Senators wrote in a letter to Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) “There have been a series of recent incidents in which hostility has been exercised against members of the press by members of the Administration, including just last week when a reporter was allegedly manhandled and threatened by security guards after a news conference at the Federal Communications Commission headquarters.”
