Is right-wing media allowed in Washington's state House?

A dispute is escalating in Olympia, pitting right-wing media against the mainstream press and legislative Democrats, and raising questions about who draws the line between journalism and activism as it gets blurrier in the internet age.

Three prominent right-wing media figures — podcaster Brandi Kruse, radio host Ari Hoffman, and correspondent Jonathan Choe — were denied press credentials to the floor of the state House in recent weeks. Kruse and Hoffman were denied because of their political advocacy, according to a lawsuit they filed this week, and Choe because he works for a conservative think tank.

Washington's two Republican Congressmen have called the denial a violation of the First Amendment.

Choe and Kruse were local TV reporters but left in recent years. Hoffman was a candidate for Seattle City Council in 2019 and now hosts an afternoon talk show on Seattle's KVI. They’re suing the state Legislature, the House clerk and the Capitol Correspondents Association, the group of mainstream journalists who evaluate press credential requests.

“The media landscape is changing. Legacy media is dwindling. Many Americans and Washingtonians get their news and information from independent sources — podcasts, blogs, opinion writers,” Kruse said in an email to KUOW. “More people asking questions of people in power is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

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Leadership of the Capitol Correspondents Association, including Jerry Cornfield of the Washington State Standard who’s named in the lawsuit, declined to speak on the record with KUOW because of the pending lawsuit.

Almost anyone is allowed in the state Capitol and committees, but this dispute is primarily over who’s allowed in the wings of the Washington state House — a narrow strip between the floor and the caucus rooms where legislators have side conversations. It can be an important place for journalists to catch a representative for comment, and lobbyists frequently flock outside its doors trying to grab a moment with a lawmaker.

"Eligibility for House floor press credentials are limited to individuals who are not engaged in campaigns, lobbying, or advocate for candidates for public office and/or bills and ballot measures (and the advancement of public policy)," House clerk Bernard Dean, who's also named in the lawsuit, told KUOW via email. "All Washingtonians and other interested parties, whether they represent a large media outlet or an independent blog, can report on the Legislature with or without a press pass."

Press passes also grant access to a first-come, first-serve table for journalists on the actual floor of the House chamber. Members of the public can watch House proceedings from the gallery above or on TVW.org.

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Republicans invite conservative journalists to their side of the wings regularly — Kruse and Choe have been to past caucus meetings — but the Democrats, who control the House, have been stricter about access to their side, even blocking Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson’s staff last year.

The Capitol Correspondents Association doesn’t have final say on who’s allowed, but evaluates applicants for the House and makes a recommendation to leadership. They don’t issue passes to media members who lobby or campaign for bills or candidates. (This reporter has on many occasions received a press pass at the recommendation of the association.)

“It is important that a line be established between professional journalism and political or policy work,” the association’s guidelines say. “This is the spirit in which the Legislature has offered access: The press should act as an independent observer and monitor of the proceedings, not an involved party.”

Left-leaning organizations such as the Northwest Progressive Institute have so far chosen not to apply for credentials, expecting they would be denied because they advocate for legislation.

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Records from the state's Public Disclosure Commission show the plaintiffs have been paid for campaign work and political events in the past few years. Kruse and Hoffman have recently spoken at rallies held by Let’s Go Washington, a conservative campaign which will likely have two initiatives on the fall ballot, although Kruse said she wasn't paid for that.

“Legacy media is notoriously biased in favor of Democrats. I am at least transparent about my political beliefs,” Kruse said. “You can call me many things, but inconsistent isn’t one of them. I have advocated for press freedom on the left and right — criticizing the Trump administration for blocking the AP, CNN, and, most recently, spoke out against the arrest of Don Lemon.”

Gov. Ferguson, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, had Kruse in one of his press conferences as recently as last week.

Jonathan Choe has been paid for video work and consulting with two campaigns in 2024 — one Democratic, one Republican. But Choe pointed out the rules specifically regard current campaign work, and working for think tanks alongside conservative outlets is how he survives in the freelance market today.

“I do believe the Capitol Correspondents’ Association or local lawmakers and other entities that grant these types of press passes need to assess this rapidly changing news landscape, and they have to be nimble with the times. Look, I wear five, six different hats right now,” Choe said, citing bylines with Turning Point USA, Newsmax and a number of other conservative outlets. “I'm having to hustle and look for opportunities to simply get a byline in or to get my story on air, and every time I do, I get paid.”

The denial is a “blatant violation of the First Amendment,” Republican Congressmen Dan Newhouse and Michael Baumgartner said in a letter sent Monday to Democrat Laurie Jinkins, speaker for the state House.

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They also sent the email to the state House clerk, Bernard Dean, who responded in a letter that Olympia’s press credential guidelines are similar to those in Congress.

“The individuals for whom you seem to be advocating for would not appear to receive press credentials under your own guidelines,” Dean said.

The wings have long been off-limits even to union and business newsletter writers, according to David Ammons, the longest-serving Capitol reporter in state history, who was president of the press corps for decades. One reporter once got credentials yanked for lobbying the House speaker in the wings, he said.

“It wasn't a matter of political bent, but whether they were reporting for a legacy media outlet and willing to abide by the rules of decorum and non-lobbying,” Ammons said in an email.

But even with legacy news organizations, the line between independent observer and active participant can get a little messy. Newspaper publishers and the Washington State Association of Broadcasters, of which KUOW is a member, pay a lobbyist in Olympia for work on “First Amendment issues” and public disclosure laws.

At a recent hearing in the state Senate on a social media and search engine tax to fund local journalism, testifiers included the Seattle Times’ owner Frank Blethen and a number of representatives of radio and television stations.

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Some who cover Olympia agree the Capitol Correspondents Association’s decision-making has been slow to evolve with mass internet media and biased in enforcing the rules.

“If we’re going to draw the line at advocacy, let’s draw the line at advocacy for everybody,” said Paul Queary, who was a member of the association as Olympia correspondent for AP in the '00s. “I think they’re being exclusionary to conservative media, and that’s pretty clear.”

Queary now runs the Washington State Observer, a nonpartisan newsletter covering Olympia.

Erica Barnett, who runs left-leaning Seattle news site PubliCola, disagreed and called the three activists, pointing to Kruse and Choe’s appearance at a White House roundtable with President Trump in October.

“Choe and Kruse, whose fawning comments were covered widely, were part of a praise roundtable for Trump. Hoffman is a local right-winger who posts bats**t stuff on Twitter,” Barnett wrote on Bluesky. “It's not that I think you can't be a right-wing journalist. [KTTH host] Jason Rantz is a right-wing journalist, one who regularly gets scoops!”

When asked via phone for a response to Barnett, Hoffman said, "I don't respond to crazy."

"I've written for Newsweek, I've been on Fox, I've been on Newsmax," Hoffman said. "I think that what's happening here is you're seeing mainstream media be jealous that there's other people playing in their pool because they don't have as many reporters to spend down there anymore. The day I was denied a press pass, there was nobody sitting at the press table."