Chicago City Wire

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s banning of a popular radio reporter from his daily press briefings is an attempt to silence dissent, according to at least one politician.

As previously reported in Prairie State Wire, AM 560 co-host Amy Jacobson was labeled a non-“impartial journalist” after she reported that Gov. Pritzker’s family members had left for Florida and Wisconsin rather than stay in Illinois during the COVID-19 lockdown.

"If everybody decided for themselves who was a biased and unbiased journalist, we may not have any real reporters covering anything,” said David Krupa, 13th ward Republican committeeman. “The governor is trying to silence dissent over this lockdown and I don't think that he's giving the opposition or journalists with integrity a fair shake.” 

Jacobson was reportedly informed via email that her access to Gov Pritzker’s daily online media conferences was revoked on May 19, 2020 by his press secretary Jordan Abudayyeh, who allegedly accused Jacobson of attending an alt-right political rally organized by critics of Gov. Pritzker’s coronavirus orders.

As of June 1, 2020, there were 120,260 coronavirus cases statewide and 5,390 deaths, according to the Department of Health.

“The governor and many other government officials don't care about the First Amendment and it’s blatant when you look at the way he treats reporters like this woman that we're talking about,” Krupa told the Chicago City Wire. 

Krupa equated Gov. Pritzker’s conduct to President Trump banning CNN’s White House correspondent Jim Acosta.

“There was backlash over Jim Acosta and there ought to be the same backlash over this because it’s very close to the same situation,” he said.

In 2018, CNN sued President Donald Trump for banning Acosta from attending press conferences by revoking his press pass, alleging that First and Fifth Amendment rights had been violated, according to media reports.

Jacobson was banned after she broke the story on May 15, 2020 that Gov. Pritzker’s spouse and children were living at the family’s horse farm in Florida, which was acquired by an entity associated with the governor for $12 million during the same week he was elected in 2018, according to media reports.

“It's hugely hypocritical of the governors to tell people that they have to stay home and cannot travel then allow exceptions for his family,” said Krupa in an interview. “There's a certain set of rules for regular people and there's another set of rules for the political elite, which isn’t new but it needs to change, especially here in Illinois when you've got people like J.B. Pritzker and Mike Madigan doing that.”

Michael Madigan is the speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives.

Dine-in restaurants, bars, nightclubs, entertainment venues, gyms, public events, gatherings and convention centers have been closed since May 1 under an order that expired on May 31 at which time the state is expected to move into Phase 3 of re-opening the economy with restrictions and at limited capacity, according to media reports.

“We're getting to some semblance of normalcy but it's nowhere near what it was,” Krupa said. “There's a lot of progress that still needs to be made and the governor is inhibiting a lot of that progress.”