Student press group MediaFest cancels conservative journalists over trans views after Oregon State complained

MediaFest, the largest conference for student journalists in the nation, banned The Daily Wire White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan and The Daily Signal's Virginia Allen from speaking at the summer event. Olohan posted about it, saying, "MediaFest, the nation’s largest conference of student journos, is blocking Virginia Allen and myself from speaking to aspiring young journalists."

Olohan said that the reason for the canceling is due to her "work covering gender ideology and abortion, and Virginia's work covering immigration." An article from the Columbia Journalism Review confirms it.
 

A "student media advisor" at Oregon State University complained about Olohan and Allen's scheduled speaking engagements at the conference and took it up with organizers on a Zoom call. He said he wouldn't allow OSU students to attend if these two were speaking.

Steven Sandberg told the Columbia Journalism Review that he was tipped off by the "faith track" portion of the conference. "I saw pretty far-right, anti-LGBTQ language," he said.

He took his concerns to the College Media Association, Associated Collegiate Press, and the Society of Professional Journalists, who jointly organize MediaFest. He said, "These speakers' work doesn't exist in a vacuum. LGBTQ students are feeling targeted by our administration, by the government, and by society. So I was disappointed to see them bring in people who espoused anti-LGBTQ views."

What he meant by "anti," of course, was "factual." Olohan has written a book recounting the experiences of people who have detransitioned, that's people who were eaten up by the medical industrial complex in service to the lie that they could change sex only to be spit out the other side damaged, maimed, and even worse off than they were before. Allen's big crime was just writing for The Daily Signal, which is backed by the Heritage Foundation.

The organizers allegedly tried to push back against Sandberg, saying that students should not be shielded from reality or the current state of journalism, which contains opposing views. Sandberg reframed his complaint, attacking "the quality of their journalism" and the fact that they are writing about these issues at all. MediaFest canceled the two writers. Then said "we didn't eliminate them because of their opinion," but "because they were selectively quoting and manipulating the news to bolster their opinion."

No journalists of faith who publish at large non-faith-based conservative outlets are slated to speak for the "faith track" at MediaFest. The speakers are academics, lawyers, pastors, and journalists for a Christian outlet. None of these speakers have the professional reputation that either Allen or Olohan do, both of whom navigate the world of mainstream media while keeping their faith and letting faith inform their views but not obfuscate truth.

Outlets with representatives speaking at the conference include ProPublica, CNN, The Texas Tribune, Politico, Washington Post, PBS, Free Press Indiana, The Owen News, Medical Motherhood, the Daily Utah Chronicle, and the Washington Informer, among others. Those outlets that have taken a stand and taken up space in the wake of the years of cancellation against conservatives are not represented.