The California Post sent a reporter to cover the police commission’s regular public meeting on Tuesday —and she was attacked by a mob.
Protesters had arrived and tried to intimidate the chief of the LAPD, rather than to air their grievances in an ordinary fashion.
They drowned out their fellow residents. And they turned on our reporter, who was just doing her job.
They shouted at her; they shoved their hands in her face; they blocked her camera; and they eventually forced her to leave the meeting for her own safety.
That is completely outrageous.
It is what Alexis de Tocqueville called the “tyranny of the majority” — although in this case, it was a small, enraged mob of activists.
It was one small example of a much larger problem in our state.
California residents are living in a political climate of fear, right out of the Soviet Union.
That much became clear after The California Post published our front-page story about President Trump’s executive order to take over permit authority in fire zones.
Gavin Newsom’s press office attacked The California Post merely for running the story.
The governor even claimed it was a breach of “journalistic ethics” to wait several days before publishing news of an executive order.
This from a governor who famously refuses to publish his public schedules.
We’ve invited Governor Newsom to meet with us directly, and we look forward to that happening when he has the time.
For now, the governor’s attack is nothing more than an attempt to bully the media, to undermine freedom of the press — and to evade accountability.
Trying to shut down others’ views and drown them out when they dare express a different view is far too common in this state.
It is used by the powerful and their allies to impose their will on the state.
It is not right, and it a direct attack on our freedom of speech.
It stifles the contest of ideas that is vital to our country and our state.
It means just one point of view is okay — and that is wrong and dangerous.
Into this, steps The California Post — and we will not bow to those who seek to intimidate us, or our reporters.
We will, as we said, just days ago, hold the powerful to account — and will be fearless.
We will serve the hard working people of California, and ensure that we end the all-too-familiar fear shared by Californians who dare not speak their minds, or stand up for their basic rights, because of bullying.
People have a right to decent government service, regardless of politics.
Yet fellow Californians are afraid to assert themselves.
That’s not democracy; it’s the terror of a one-party state.
When a reporter is chased out for doing her job, when politicians try to attack a media outlet that is investing in the very place they govern, something is seriously wrong with our democracy.
This is why the California Post is here. Because right now, free speech is under threat — from politicians at the top, and mobs on the street.
That behavior is the legacy of having one-party rule for so long, where there has been little challenge to their views, and a culture of bullying has taken hold.
We will not be intimidated by anyone — ever.
Our job is to report on the powerful, and we will keep doing it, regardless.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
