UL- "Bosse bounced: Senate silences critic"

The Union Leader editorial page stands up new media's coverage of state government:

On June 3rd, Senate President Sylvia Larsen revoked the press credentials of reporter Grant Bosse, who works for the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy in Concord. Bosse is a former radio news reporter whom the Bartlett Center hired to cover the Legislature this session. He's also a former Republican candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, and his reporting, as it is done for a free-market think tank, comes with an ideological point of view.

Just before debate on the state budget was to begin, Senate Communications Director Anne Saunders informed Bosse that he would have to leave the Senate floor. Sen. Larsen no longer recognized his press credentials.

Why? Well, Bosse says he was told that he works for a think tank, not a media organization. But the Bartlett Center is both. So what if the information Bosse gathers is reported in policy reports and columns vs. in a newspaper or over the airwaves?

Bosse's political leanings shouldn't matter either. Newspaper editorial writers and opinion columnists have press credentials. Bosse's work is no different from theirs.

We'd like to thank the traditional media for recognizing th importance of new media. You don't need a printing press or a transmitter for the First Amendment to apply.