Is Trump’s penchant for press bans trickling down to local politicians?

[Commentary] What motivates a politician to freeze out the press? In Harrisburg (PA), the poverty-stricken capital of Pennsylvania, Mayor Eric Papenfuse has barred his spokeswoman from speaking with reporters for PennLive, the area’s largest news outlet, and banned PennLive reporters from attending his weekly media briefings. The mayor says he’s taking a stand against a news outlet that has become an “illegitimate … gossip blog” fishing for clicks and cash. PennLive, meanwhile, says aggressive reporting on Papenfuse’s business and civic dealings led to the clampdown.

We’ve seen the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, similarly banish news organization he dislikes over the past year, most recently The Washington Post, which joins The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Politico, among others. Papenfuse, a Democrat who says PennLive caters to the right, is no Trump worshipper. But given the ease with which a man running for the country’s highest office blacklists journalists, it’s worth asking whether this could become the new normal in towns and cities across the country.