JACKSON, Miss.—Mississippi House Speaker Jason White was “looking to get (his) side out there” on school-choice issues when he held an invite-only Q&A with select members of the Capitol Press Corps at his office on Jan. 5, he told the Mississippi Free Press today.
Several outlets that cover the Capitol did not receive an invitation to the meeting in the Republican speaker’s office, including the Mississippi Free Press and another statewide nonprofit newsroom, Mississippi Today.
The Mississippi Free Press was invited to and attended all of White’s 2025 press conferences and has long been on the speaker’s mailing list for press releases.
The next day, which was the first day of the legislative session, this reporter asked White’s communications director, Taylor Spillman, why his office did not include the Mississippi Free Press when sending out the press conference announcement. She said the speaker’s office wanted the Q&A session to be attended by reporters on “a limited, invitation-only list.”
“We just kept it to, like, a limited, invitation-only list. I don’t have a problem adding you in the future, though,” Spillman told the Mississippi Free Press on Jan. 6.
White’s office also did not invite Mississippi Today to the event, but one of its reporters, Michael Goldberg, learned about the Q&A and attempted to enter White’s office to join the Q&A that day, he reported on Jan. 5. In his report, Goldberg alleged that White’s office had stopped sending press releases to Mississippi Today and would no longer respond to the outlet’s requests for comment.
The Mississippi Today report said that White ceased communications with the outlet after its reporters released an investigative report alleging that sports-gambling lobbyists invited and paid for the speaker, his staff and their family members to attend the 2025 Super Bowl.
This reporter approached White after the House adjourned for the day on Jan. 8 to ask how the speaker chose who attended his Jan. 5 press event. He said that Mississippi Today’s assumption that they had been barred because of the Super Bowl report was not correct, but did not elaborate further.
The event he held on Jan. 5 with members of the media “wasn’t a press conference,” White said.
“We have public press conferences in the rotunda and out in the hall all the time,” he said on Jan. 8. “That was a closed-door media invite to get out my side of the story, issues important to me as they relate specifically to school choice. There’s nothing—it had nothing to do with Mississippi Today as much as they want to make it about that.”
The speaker then said he did not have any “preconceived notions” about who would or would not attend his media event. The Clarion-Ledger, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WLBT, Magnolia Tribune and WJTV were among the outlets that received invitations and attended White’s Jan. 5 media event.
“They don’t always present all sides of an issue,” White said of Mississippi Today, “and I was looking to get—whether you think my position is right or wrong—I was looking to get my position out there. They’re not always willing to represent all sides of an issue. I was looking to get my side out there. It wasn’t a give-and-take normal press conference that you see, like we have, like you’ve participated in before.”
In an interview on Thursday afternoon, Mississippi Today Editor-in-Chief Emily Wagster Pettus criticized the speaker’s decision to exclude hers and other publications.
“It is petty and wrong for the House speaker or any other elected official to exclude some news organizations from press conferences based on the officials’ perception of the type of coverage they might receive,” she said. “Mississippi Today makes every effort to report the news fairly, fully and with plenty of context so that readers can understand the important issues of our state.”
“Just as it was wrong for the speaker to exclude MT, it was also wrong for him to exclude the MFP,” she added. “In my many years of covering the Capitol, it was my experience that Free Press journalists also have made great efforts to be fair in their coverage of the Legislature.”
Mississippi Free Press Executive Editor Donna Ladd called for more transparency from the Legislature on Thursday. The Mississippi Free Press has challenged House leaders in the past over their closed-caucus meetings.
“The Mississippi Free Press has long fought for more sunshine in our Legislature,” Ladd said. “Access to power has never been our priority, and we remain focused on fairly and accurately reporting on how our lawmakers’ actions affect the people of this state. Still, public officials must be accountable to the people who elected them. It harms public trust when elected officials hold private press events with hand-picked media outlets instead of remaining open to all.”
This reporter asked White whether anything she had reported led to the Mississippi Free Press not getting an invitation, but he chuckled and said, “You hadn’t written—you’ve done great.”
White has not scheduled a public press conference, but the Mississippi Free Press will be on alert for any notifications from his office.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann held a press conference in his office on Jan. 7 after the Mississippi Senate passed three education bills. He and his staff welcomed the Mississippi Free Press and Mississippi Today to attend the event and he answered questions from both outlets.
Ashton Pittman contributed to this report.