By Steve Berman

The @FreeBeacon has been told that it is not welcome at tonight's @ossoff event pic.twitter.com/lzXfForIGG — Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 20, 2017

That’s right, they tossed him out of their campaign event.

Asked why the Free Beacon was being restricted from covering the event, Haworth said, “Thank you very much for your interest in covering our race.” Asked why the Free Beacon wasn’t being allowed to cover the race despite its interest, Haworth said, “Thank you very much for your interest in covering our race.”

This singular act of idiocy was widely condemned by media from the left and the right. Senior HuffPo editor Sam Stein tweeted:

this is crap and outlets who aren’t on the blacklist should express their objections. https://t.co/2NEvI9GDJa — Sam Stein (@samstein) June 20, 2017

Sopan Deb, who covers culture for the New York Times, joined in solidarity with his fellow reporter.

Not to be out-shouted, idiot clown Howard Dean replied to Stein with this.

Sam i beg to differ. The Beacon engages in fake news and propaganda. Half a step up from Daily Caller. They are not legit. https://t.co/TQiR5UQsXn — Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) June 20, 2017

To which Jeet Heer from The New Republic slapped Dean like a transgender MMA diva.

Dean is wrong. Much of the conservative press is terrible but the Free Beaconis far superior to propagandist fare like The Daily Caller. Unlike other comparable conservative websites, the Free Beaconmakes an effort to do original reporting. Its commitment to journalism should be welcomed by liberals. As Mother Jones noted in 2015, “In its short history, the Free Beacon’s tiny staff of fewer than two dozen journalists has pulled off an almost unprecedented feat: Amid a conservative movement that has often evinced something between disinterest and disdain for the work of investigative reporters, it has built genuine muckraking success.” This judgment still stands. And given the problems of disinformation and propaganda in the Trump era, liberals would do well to encourage any effort to improve conservative journalism.

I mean, even Mother Jones realizes that WFB is a real news outlet. And the Daily Caller was founded by Tucker Carlson, of Fox News. I guess Fox News isn’t legit either. Hey Howard, 2009 is calling—that’s the last time the White House, under Obama, took on Fox News and lost.

Excluding WFB is petty and stupid, just like Howard Dean. It won’t change anything in the election results (probably), but if Ossoff loses by a single vote, he deserves it for this stunt.

(Given the bad weather, I think he’ll probably lose anyway. But it’s definitely too close to call.)

Nobody at the Ossoff campaign knows why Scher was excluded from the campaign event. Or at least they’re not saying.

Asked @Ossoff comm team whether I was only person barred from event. He ignored first few times, then said "I don't know" — Brent Scher (@BrentScher) June 20, 2017

For someone who’s running against Donald Trump, Ossoff is certainly acting like him.