Gadfly Reporter Blames WaPo ‘Hit Piece’ for White House Warning

Gadfly reporter Simon Ateba, who has become a right-wing media celebrity due to his briefing-room outbursts, revealed this week that the White House press office issued him a warning about his attention-grabbing antics. And according to Ateba, this is all part of a set-up initiated by a “hit piece” in The Washington Post. In the unsigned letter, which is the first of its kind from the Biden administration, the press office told Ateba that he was in danger of losing his “hard pass” if he continued to interrupt the briefings. Ateba, the sole owner and employee of blog Today News Africa, has repeatedly disrupted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over his demands to be recognized, claiming he’s a victim of “discrimination” and censorship. “Following @washingtonpost hit piece meant to prevent me from renewing my hard pass, the @WhiteHouse and @PressSec office just sent me ‘A WARNING LETTER,’” Ateba tweeted on Tuesday, referencing a recent Post article about his pattern of disruption. In the end, the administration’s threat of pulling Ateba’s hard pass—the credential reporters use to access the White House grounds at will—may be moot. With more stringent credentialing rules taking effect at the end of the month, Ateba likely won’t qualify to retain his hard pass anyway. One of the new hard pass requirements, which requires that applicants work for a legitimate news gather organization, is also one of the reasons cited by the White House Correspondents’ Association in denying Ateba’s membership recently.