Josh Feit, previously of the Stranger, as well as Horse's Ass editor David Goldstein (AKA Goldy) was kicked out of Dino Rossi's news conference yesterday because, according to a Republican operative, he worked for a "partisan" publication, Horsesass.com. Bruce Ramsey, an editorial writer for "nonpartisan" Seattle Times--which just happened to endorse Rossi--was allowed in, and today he called bullshit on the Rossi camp's double standard.

Being an employee of a big paper, I have hardly ever had that happen to me. The one time I remember was in the 90s as a business reporter being denied entry to a stockholder meeting of the Fisher Companies, which was then under SEC rules a public company. I was furious--shaking--and a good deal less polite to the Fisher vice-president who kicked me out than Goldy was yesterday--and I don't regret anything I said to that Fisher man, or about him, thereafter. My experience wasn't exactly the same as Goldy's, but close enough.

Obviously, a lawyer holding a press conference in his private offices may let in who he likes and exclude who he likes. It may well be, as Goldy suspects, that they excluded him because he's anti-Rossi, and because his style of expression is less than genteel. Maybe even the name of his blog has something to do with it. But for the record: Goldy is part of the media in Seattle. People who follow politics know who he is. They read him. Whether Feit is paid, or how much he is paid, is beside the point. We are not media because of how much money we make, or that we make any at all. We are media because of what we do.

I can only add: The only time I've ever been asked to leave a press event was at a press conference held by the anti-monorail campaign in 2003--and I'm still pissed. People who work with the media need to learn that you get better press by letting the media (even the partisan media!) in than by excluding them.