Delaney’s Failure to Communicate Resulted in Lack of Hagerstown Town Hall Coverage

Recently one of our subscribers reached out regarding a recent town hall event held by Congresswoman April McClain Delaney (D) in Hagerstown, who represents Congressional District 6 in Maryland. This town hall went uncovered by our newsroom—not by choice, but due to a continued lack of communication from the congresswoman’s office. Despite previously requesting to be added to her news media distribution list, our news organization has not received any recent press releases or media invites to events, including this latest event addressing federal issues important to local residents.

This story was updated to provide additional clarification regarding what communication we have received from Rep. Delaney’s office.

We are all part time here at Radio Free Hub City. As such, we’re limited on resources and our ability to cover everything, so we can only cover those who actually engage with us. Unfortunately, Congresswoman Delaney (as well as Senator Alsobrooks) have not engaged with us despite our outreach attempts to both.

Our initial request to be included on Congresswoman Delaney’s press list was submitted shortly after she assumed office. The goal was to ensure consistent, fair, and timely coverage of her activities and decisions affecting Western Maryland. However, we have not received a single confirmation or response acknowledging our outreach, other than several generic newsletter emails which are not at all useful. The lack of being sent her office’s press release announcements has directly impacted our ability to provide comprehensive news coverage to the community we serve.

This disconnect became more apparent after this recent complaint from one of our paying subscribers, who expressed frustration that we did not report on the Hagerstown event. We are just as frustrated as the subscriber who reached out, and fully understand the importance of such coverage, particularly when a sitting member of Congress engages directly with constituents. Unfortunately, we were unaware of specifics of the town hall and did not receive a news media invitation, and therefore unable to send a reporter or notify readers in advance.

As one of the last remaining locally owned news outlets in Washington County, reaching more than 20,000 residents each month, we are committed to serving our audience with accurate and timely news covering all viewpoints. That mission includes keeping the public informed about their elected representatives. But this coverage depends on access to reliable and timely information, something we continue to seek from Representative Delaney’s office. We actually have better communication with the United Nations, who gives us daily press release updates, than we do Representative Delaney.

We have submitted another request to Delaney’s office for news media access and press releases. If you’d like to contact Congresswoman Delaney and request she properly engage with locally owned news media outlets, please do so through her website.

UPDATE: For full transparency, we submitted a request via web form to Delaney shortly after she took office, requesting to be added to her press release list (which should be separate from her newsletter). Most of the emails we have received (none of which were press releases) were her criticisms of the Trump administration, and contained very little useful information to provide coverage of what Rep. Delaney was actually doing. At no point were we notified by Delaney of this town hall, or extended an invitation to attend as members of the news media.

Article by Ken Buckler, President of Radio Free Hub City

---