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| This ad, designed to look like "Iowa News" coverage, also accused Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek of failing to prevent vandalism during a campus disturbance. The area wasn't in his primary jurisdiction, KCRG noted, giving it an F. |
Iowa Freedom of Information Council, via Substack
In what’s become a trend of Republicans stiff-arming mainstream media outlets, the Iowa Republican Party denied a Cedar Rapids TV station entrance into its election night party in Des Moines.
KCRG-TV is the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids. It’s a fine news operation that provides quality coverage in eastern Iowa. On Monday, the day before the election, the station learned it had been denied credentials to the party’s election night event, where all major GOP candidates would appear.
According to KCRG story, an party spokesman claimed the room was at capacity and priority was given to Des Moines outlets. News director Adam Carros said outlets from outside Des Moines got in, and he cried foul. “This is an unprecedented action in my 20+ years in TV news, 17 of it in Iowa,” Carros said. “I cannot recall a single instance a political party has blocked a local TV or newspaper outlet from its election night event in Iowa.”
That makes two of us. In 40 years of TV news experience in Iowa, I’ve never heard of this happening, either. I imagine it won’t be the last time.
Carros suspects it’s payback for fact-check coverage the station did on political ads run by several Republican candidates. One of the stories criticized an ad from state Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, son of state GOP chair Jeff Kaufmann. Carros says the party repeatedly criticized KCRG’s coverage and refused to take part in the station’s previews of legislative races. “I have every reason to believe this is political retribution for our fact checks and other reporting the party deemed unfavorable.”
What possible gains can be made by denying a station the right to cover what turned into a huge victory party for the Iowa GOP? Republicans now hold all Iowa seats in Congress, both houses of the Iowa legislature, and they swept to victory in every statewide office including governor, attorney general, treasurer, secretary of state and ag secretary. From Republicans’ perspective, what a great story to tell! Why not shout it as loud as possible through every media outlet imaginable?
With the race for Arizona governor too close to call, Iowa native Kari Lake – a former TV news anchor, for Pete’s sake – told reporters Wednesday she plans to win, and not only serve four years, but eight. With reporters standing around her, Lake said “I’m gonna be your worst freaking nightmare for eight years, and we will reform the media as well. We’re gonna make you guys into journalists again. So get ready. It’s going to be a fun eight years. I can’t wait.”
Let’s get something straight. Reporters are supposed to do tough stories on people in power. Threats from Kari Lake, or stiff-arming from Iowa Republicans, is not going to change that fact. After Tuesday night, everyone in power in Iowa is a Republican. It’s clear they want to intimidate and bully media outlets into becoming lap dogs. To write glowing stories only. But it is not going to happen, and they know that. Their main goal is to score political points with their base. The news media are easy targets.
Local TV news cannot turn into partisan outlets like Fox or MSNBC. It must continue to hit the ball down the middle of the fairway and do tough stories on those in power, regardless of party, regardless of complaints, and regardless of blacklisting.
In the end, KCRG grabbed a Des Moines station’s satellite feed of the Republican victory celebration, so viewers did not miss out. And in the next election cycle, Adam Carros and his team will continue to do fact checks on both Republican and Democratic candidates – with or without their cooperation.
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