America’s most powerful television networks have been handing out official congressional press credentials to people Congress explicitly bars from eligibility. The list includes a man convicted on child pornography charges, Donald Trump’s own lawyer, Turning Point USA operatives, political activists, and current press secretaries for sitting members of Congress.
That’s according to a Raw Story investigation into the Radio-Television Correspondents’ Association, the little-known body that controls who gets access to the halls of Congress. Under Senate rules, only people whose primary work involves gathering or reporting broadcast news qualify for a credential. Applicants must also certify they’re not employed by any government agency.
The RTCA, run by a small committee of network broadcasters, approved credentials anyway.
The convicted pedophile got approved anyway
Start with the most incomprehensible case. After the FBI raided reporter James Meek’s home in 2022, he resigned from ABC News. The following year, two months before new credentials are issued each spring, FBI agents arrested Meek for transporting images of child sexual abuse, according to the Justice Department. He was later convicted and imprisoned.
RTCA approved a 2023-2024 congressional press credential for him anyway. ABC News’ representative at the Capitol has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Then there’s Christina Bobb. She didn’t just leave journalism. She became one of the most politically active figures in Trump’s orbit. In April 2021, Bobb and OAN White House Correspondent Chanel Rion raised upwards of $600,000 through a personal nonprofit aimed at overturning the 2020 election, according to the Arizona Mirror. She was on Trump’s legal team after the 2020 election.
Despite leaving OAN in March 2022, RTCA approved her for a 2023-2024 OAN congressional press credential. In the lead-up to the 2024 election, Bobb was tapped to lead the Republican National Committee’s election integrity program. In April 2024, while approved for an official congressional hard pass, a grand jury indicted Bobb and 17 others on nine counts of forgery, fraud, and conspiracy.
One America News is in a league of its own. According to Raw Story, six of the 22 credentials OAN was approved for appear to violate RTCA bylaws. That’s 27.3 percent.
The Turning Point pipeline
Pizzagate conspiracy peddler Jack Posobiec left OAN in May 2021 to join Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. He was still approved for RTCA credentials for the 118th Congress.
Caitlin Sinclair left OAN in December 2023 to become TPUSA’s spokeswoman before running social media for the pro-Trump MAGA INC Super-PAC during the election. She’s listed as approved for credentials, too.
Separately, Fox News requested and RTCA approved a credential for Turning Point USA Chief Marketing Officer Marina Minas after she left the network, according to her LinkedIn.
After she departed OAN for Newsmax in 2021, RTCA also approved OAN credentials for Jennifer Pellegrino throughout the last Congress. She has since left media entirely and is now chief spokesperson for the America First Policy Institute.
The press secretary with a press pass
Lilly Broadcasting submitted just two credential requests for 2023-2024. One of them went to Matthew Knoedler, who left journalism in 2021 to become press secretary for Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican.
During the 2024 election, Knoedler served as communications director for Kelly’s Task Force on the Attempted Assassination of Donald J. Trump. All while approved for a credential he was categorically ineligible for.
Fox News also credentialed Tucker Carlson throughout the same period, even though the network’s own lawyers had already convinced a federal court that Carlson is a commentator prone to rhetorical hyperbole, not a journalist.
The gatekeepers who aren’t watching the gate
The RTCA Executive Committee is the body that approves credentials. It’s made up of broadcasters elected by their credentialed peers. Currently, Nate Reed of Scripps chairs the committee. He’s joined by Vice Chair Frank Thorp V of NBC, Kevin Frey of MS Now, and Rachel Knapp of Lilly Broadcasting.
Throughout the 118th Congress, it was led by Fox Radio’s Jared Halpern in 2023 and NBC’s Ryan Nobles in 2024. Last year, it was led by Allie Pecorin of Disney-owned ABC. Multiple requests for comment to each current RTCA Executive Committee member and several former chairs have gone unanswered.
RTCA conducts its business largely in secret. Member meetings are off the record. Credentialing criteria is rarely written down. RTCA maintains four separate public websites that flatly contradict each other at points, including on membership requirements and its own governing constitution.
Across those four sites, RTCA claims to have over 3,000, over 3,600, over 3,700, and more than 4,000 members. At $40 per credential, the difference between 3,000 and 4,000 members is $40,000 in annual dues.
What we’re watching
When Congress-issued press credentials go to political operatives, lobbyists, and activists instead of being reserved for journalists, it corrupts the pipeline of information flowing to the public. It hands partisan actors the same privileged access as reporters tasked with holding power to account.
Mike Mastrian has been director of the Senate Radio-Television Gallery since 2005. He reports to the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, but he’s also tasked with administering the will of the RTCA Executive Committee. RTCA credentialing data for the 119th Congress isn’t publicly available yet and likely won’t be until after this year’s midterms. RTCA didn’t respond to Raw Story’s questions.
The question is whether Congress, which wrote the rules and empowered the RTCA to enforce them, will now act on the fact that those rules have been systematically ignored. Or whether the networks that handed out credentials to a convicted pedophile, indicted co-conspirators, and press secretaries will continue treating congressional access like a favor they can grant to whomever they choose.
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