Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has backed down on his efforts to block Chicago journalist and talk radio host Amy Jacobson from questioning him during press conferences.
The move prompted Jacobson to, in turn, back off from her lawsuit against Pritzker, accusing the governor of unconstitutionally kicking her out, while seeking to pick and choose which journalists get to question him.
On June 16, attorneys for Jacobson announced she had received a letter sent by the Illinois Attorney General’s Office on behalf of the governor saying Jacobson “is eligible to participate in the Governor’s press access on the same basis as other journalists.”
In response to the letter, Pat Hughes, president of the Liberty Justice Center, which legally represented Jacobson, said the Pritzker administration’s effort to bar Jacobson from the governor’s press availabilities “was a complete overreach and he (Pritzker) is right to walk it back.”
“The governor may not like when journalists ask tough questions and he may not always agree with their coverage, but Americans have a constitutional right to hold their elected officials accountable,” Hughes said, in a prepared statement.
Jacobson and her employer, Salem Media, had sued Pritzker on June 1 in Chicago federal court.
The litigation centered on actions Pritzker and his media relations office took in mid-May against Jacobson.
Jacobson has worked in media, in Chicago and elsewhere, for more than 25 years, as a news reporter and a talk show host. For the past 10 years, she has co-hosted the morning show with pundit Dan Proft on radio station AM 560 The Answer. That station is owned and operated by Salem.
In April, Jacobson attended Prtizker’s daily press briefings, held to address state actions taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Jacobson questioned Pritzker regularly during those press conferences.
As the centerpiece of the state’s response to COVID-19, Pritzker issued a series of executive orders, including his so-called stay at home order in March, which resulted in the closure of thousands of businesses, and massive new unemployment. The order prohibited Illinois residents from traveling or conducting business, except for certain activities and businesses deemed “essential” by the governor.
That order has resulted in a mounting array of legal challenges, and protests, particularly from those seeking to “reopen” Illinois.
During that time, Jacobson remained a frequent critic of Pritzker’s actions and policies, sharing those views on her radio program.
In mid-May, however, Pritzker’s communications team barred Jacobson from attending and participating in the press conferences any further.
Pritzker’s press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh said the action against Jacobson was due to her participation in an anti-Pritzker rally in southern Illinois on May 16. They asserted this meant Jacobson would no longer be treated as an “impartial journalist” and would “therefore … no longer be invited to participate as an impartial journalist” in the press conferences.
However, in her lawsuit challenging that decision, Jacobson’s lawyers pointed out the governor’s action against Jacobson also came mere days after Jacobson had broken news that Pritzker’s family had traveled to both Florida and Wisconsin, despite the governor’s own stay at home order.
“The story struck a nerve, with coverage by numerous statewide news outlets,” the complaint said.
When he had been asked about the Jacobson ban, Pritkzer said: “She represents a talk show that has a particular point of view, we allowed her to ask questions because once upon a time she was a reporter, but she proved that she is no longer a reporter.”
In the lawsuit, Jacobson and Salem said the governor’s explanation of his decision to ban Jacobson did not hold up.
Rather, they said, Pritzker’s press team merely used her attendance at the rally as “a pretext to remove a troublesome or contrarian reporter from the press corps.” They noted the things Jacobson said at the rally were no different from what she had said about Pritzker’s policies for weeks on her radio show.
The complaint accused Pritzker of violating Jacobson’s First Amendment speech and free press rights, and her rights to equal protection and due process.
A spokesperson for the Liberty Justice Center confirmed Jacobson would be dropping her lawsuit, in light of the governor’s change of heart.
“Amy Jacobson has a long history in Chicago as a dogged journalist who asks tough questions. We’re happy that she can finally get back to doing what she does best – asking the questions that are on the minds of so many in our audience,” said Jeff Reisman, regional vice president and general manager of AM 560 The Answer, in a prepared statement.