NY23 Dem Candidate Martha Robertson Grants Cornell Daily Sun Exclusive Media Access Based on Political Connections

Remember my previous article about the Cornell Democrats hosting NY23 Democratic congressional candidate Martha Robertson, and how members of the Cornell Dems’ E-Board said no audio or video recording was permitted?

Turns out that was a lie.

The Cornell Daily Sun, the school’s major newspaper, took a nearly two-minute long video of Robertson speaking and published it on its website two days later. During the event I saw the Sun photographer taking pictures, which were allowed, but it never occurred to me that she might be taking a video as well.

After learning about the existence of the video, I quickly contacted the Sun videographer, Beifan “Kiki” Li, who managed to, as I initially thought, sneak a video. Instead, she told me that she had gained clearance ahead of time from both the Cornell Democrats and the Robertson campaign to video the event. How, exactly? She went on to tell me that she worked for the Robertson campaign as an intern.

It then all made sense. The Daily Sun had used the personal political affiliations of its staff member to gain exclusive media access to the Robertson event, which on the surface seems like a legitimate tactic–after all, all is fair in the battle of publications for best content. However, this is just another example of how the Daily Sun is by no means an objective campus news source. There was no disclaimer stating that the videographer was affiliated with the Robertson campaign.

Yet the real issue here is that the Robertson campaign only permitted a pre-approved, friendly media outlet represented by a campaign staffer of hers to fully cover her campus visit. Legal Insurrection has reported extensively on how Robertson has gone to great lengths to hide from the media in her attempt to take NY23 “from red to blue.”  And when confronted by Legal Insurrection founder William Jacobson at a Cornell visit this past spring, Robertson’s true inability to handle scrutiny and criticism was on full display.

Facebook message and email inquiries sent to Cornell Democrat president Eric Pesner and Vice President Jared Ham have gone unanswered, as has an email inquiry sent to the video editor at the Cornell Daily Sun.