This week, the Poynter Institute is publishing installments from “Shut Out: Strategies for good journalism when sources dismiss the press,” our report from a symposium by the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership about the growing trend of sources bypassing independent reporting.

You can read the full PDF of the report here, or return each day for a new topic of discussion. 

Before the pandemic, reporters were allowed onto the floor of the New York State Assembly. They could approach lawmakers during downtime and ask questions about lengthy proposals and sticking points. They could go behind the speaker podium to witness informal gaggles or access additional meeting rooms. 

Pandemic lockdowns relegated journalists to a few seats in the back of the chamber. 

Now four years later — despite formal requests from the New York State Legislative Correspondents Association and a rules change request from state Republicans to reinstate press access — the Democratic supermajority still denies reporters physical access in the lower house. Mask requirements, capacity restrictions and other limitations related to health and safety have long been lifted. 

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie’s comms team has also denied any change occurred at all, arguing that reporters had never been allowed on the floor.

“Many of my fellow statehouse reporters used the term ‘gaslighting’ to describe this situation,” said Rebecca Lewis, senior state politics reporter at City & State New York. “We tried time and again to get our access restored. … We even had longtime journalists who covered the institution provide photos of them talking to lawmakers on the floor.”

According to the Press Freedom Tracker, state governments in Iowa, Kansas, Utah and Texas also delayed lifting pandemic-era restrictions on reporter access until 2022 and 2023. 

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh Public Schools and other entities in Allegheny County still held their public meetings exclusively online until December 2023 — more than two years after the law allowing virtual meetings of public agencies expired. Sometimes the school board itself would meet in person, but the doors were still closed to the public, offering no options for impromptu questions or comments. 

“I’ve got somebody out there huddled on the sidewalk with an umbrella. She’s trying to catch people when they come out. But then they come out three other doors,” said Lash at Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting. “This hampers coverage by news organizations like ours because journalists have far fewer options to pose questions about the board’s handling of crucial issues, such as a recent report on discrepancies in discipline of white students and students of color.”

While government reporters might not be used to being blocked from press conferences and public meetings, journalists in other areas, like sports and entertainment, have long dealt with tightly controlled physical access to their sources and strict rules of engagement. 

In September 2023, the University of Southern California suspended Orange County Register beat reporter Luca Evans from USC football facilities and press conferences, arguing he violated a policy of reporting remarks made outside official team media availability. USC and head coach Lincoln Riley upheld the suspension after a letter from the media group’s top editors, even though they could not point to the specific policy that was broken or back up any claims of inaccurate reporting. 

“It is extremely difficult to gain access to many newsmakers, particularly the ones in sports that I need to speak with to do my job,” said Don Van Natta Jr., ESPN investigative reporter. “Nearly all the sources I try to reach are tightly controlled by handlers, like agents and PR execs.”

The Tampa Bay Times’ Garcia says his approach to grassroots sourcing can also be beneficial for journalists who are denied access to physical spaces, because a community member might be able to enter, take notes, record audio or even ask questions on a journalist’s behalf. 

Van Natta said that for him, a “combination of persistence and stubbornness” typically also yields success.  

Recommendation: Collaborate rather than compete

Another strategy is to put competitive instincts aside.

Klas, the former Florida capitol reporter, and Lewis, the New York statehouse reporter, discussed how they started asking competitors who are present at an event or press conference for help — or to at least share a recording or transcript from a tool like Otter. 

“I’ll say, ‘If you get a question in, here are some things we’re interested in.’ I’ll put my questions on Twitter, and I’ll say, ‘Here’s what you should be asking.’ It’s worked!” Klas said. “I think it would be a really good thing if there was more cooperation, collaboration, like if there was an email chain or a WhatsApp chain of reporters that were covering the same thing.”

In the way that the White House press corps creates pool reports to “balance reporting needs with logistical realities,” local journalists could collaborate with each other to share updates on key newsmakers’ activities.

If someone in the New York legislative correspondents association “is able to make a particular event and no one else is, they’ll send an untelevised gaggle,” Lewis said. “Even if the event is livestreamed, the Q&A afterwards often has not been. So if you’re not there, then you need to know someone who’s there.”

Cooperation and solidarity could be a strategy to help The Daytona Beach News-Journal, which has been in a standoff with Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood since 2023, after its editor wrote a column criticizing him for trashing a reporter on social media. The sheriff has since stopped alerting the paper to important press conferences.

In an interview with the paper, Barbara Petersen, a longtime open government and press freedom advocate in Florida who now heads the Florida Center for Government Accountability, said it’s the public Chitwood is punishing with his stance, not the paper, and that the press corps should “just boycott him: If they can’t come, then we won’t either.”

This report was edited by Neil Brown and Jennifer Orsi

Coming Thursday: Pandemic and polarization: Chilling effects on good journalism and the conclusion