USCCB staff at the media center that the ... - Politico

[Pages:2]200 Fifth Avenue, 8thFloor, New York, NY 10010 Ph: (212) 4317464 Fax: (212) 4317461

September 22, 2015

John Stanton Washington Bureau Chief BuzzFeed News

Don Clemmer Chieko Noguchi United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Archdiocese of Washington Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. Clemmer and Ms. Noguchi,

I am writing to ask that you reconsider your decision to deny credentials to cover Pope Francis's visit to three reporters from BuzzFeed News, and to express my concern that Ms. Noguchi's hostility toward BuzzFeed News, and specifically our reporter Lester Feder, has unduly influenced your credentialing process.

BuzzFeed News is a leading media organization with a team of more than 450 editorial staffers around the globe. Our audience reach is among the largest in the world for a media company, with our content reaching more than 200 million people per month.

We have also, as you know, covered Pope Francis and the Vatican in detail and from a variety of angles -- from Ellie Hall's moving coverage of Pope Francis's early audiences to Lester Feder's work breaking news about Cardinal Burke's departure as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.

On Jan. 21, our reporter Ellie Hall first reached out to the World Meeting 2015 press contact to request information on how to secure credentials for the pope's visit, the first in a long series of requests by Ms. Hall, myself, and Mr. Feder, also of my bureau.

We completed the requisite credentialing forms as outlined by USCCB hereand requested credentials for multiple events in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia. While we were approved for general credentials, we did not hear about credentials for specific events.

Concerned that we had not been given confirmation about our status for the individual events, on Sept. 8 and again on Sept. 14, I emailed Ronda Stauffer of the Ardian Group -- which USCCB had contracted with to conduct the credentialing process -- about our credentials. Neither email received a response.

Upon arriving at the credentialing center this morning, I was informed that I had been denied credentials for each of the pope's events in Washington, and that BuzzFeed as an outlet had not been given credentials for specific events. Rather, we were given the general credential -- a

200 Fifth Avenue, 8thFloor, New York, NY 10010 Ph: (212) 4317464 Fax: (212) 4317461

glorified hall pass that provides access to a media filing center but no ability to actually cover the pope's events.

Similarly, Ms. Hall was also informed she had been denied later in the day Mr. Feder was told by USCCB staff at the media center that the decision to not credential BuzzFeed was made by the Washington Archdiocese. You have not responded to several phone calls, and emails to USCCB press staff today have gone unanswered.

This is particularly troubling given the Archdiocese's hostility toward BuzzFeed News, and to Mr. Feder specifically, a deeply sourced, awardwinning reporter.

In November of 2014, Mr. Feder asked Cardinal Wuerl if they could meet for a background coffee to discuss issues Lester was reporting on that affected the church. The Cardinal agreed, and asked him to contact his press office.

After several messages to the Archdiocese went unreturned, Mr. Feder finally spoke with Ms. Noguchi on March 13. Ms. Noguchi told him that she didn't want to schedule the meeting because, in her view, his church coverage has focused on LGBT issues and how the church "is standing in the way of some kind of rights."

Although Mr. Feder followed up with an email that day to address Ms. Noguchi's concerns, she did not respond. Additionally, I emailed her three times in April in an effort to meet in person to discuss this situation. I also called Ms. Noguchi multiple times. To date, she has not responded.

I am disturbed that this appears to be retaliation by Ms. Noguchi for coverage that she does not approve of, a decision that seems hardly in the spirit of the pope's call to "try also to be a church that finds new roads."

On a personal note, I am a lifelong Catholic, raised in the Arlington Diocese, who learned the importance of an open mind and heart from the Oblates of St. Francis De Sales. Lester is one of the most fairminded, open reporters I have known in my 18year career as a journalist.

I hope you will reconsider this decision immediately and extend credentials to our reporters.

Sincerely,

John Stanton Washington Bureau Chief BuzzFeed News

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