MediaFest says it’s the largest media convention in the country, aimed at both student and professional “journalists.” This year, one of our top writers, White House correspondent Mary Margaret Olohan, was set to participate in a session for young reporters on how her faith fits into her work.
Until they found out she was a conservative.
That’s the story from the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/feature/student-journalism-mediafest-fraught-religion-faith-reporting.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Columbia Journalism Review</a>, which revealed yesterday that Olohan and another journalist, The Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen, were pulled from the event after complaints from a he/him “student media adviser” at Oregon State University named <a href="https://see.oregonstate.edu/directory/steven-sandberg">Steven Sandberg</a>.
Sandberg had been “browsing” the event schedule when he saw, according to CJR, a “portion of the conference called the ‘Faith Track’” that included authors with “pretty far-right, anti-LGBTQ language.”
Sandberg alerted the “non-partisan” organizers of the conference and told them that “LGBTQ students are feeling targeted by our administration, by the government, and by society.” Sandberg told them he was “disappointed to see them bring in people who espoused anti-LGBT views,” and they buckled.
Olohan was alerted that she’d been removed from the event by the ethics committee chairman at the Society of Professional Journalists, a man named Michael Koretzky, who told other organizers that they “found reporting problems” with Olohan’s work.
The only problematic article cited from Olohan, who has without question broken more stories of consequence in her young career than Koretzky will in his lifetime, was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-bill-would-block-abortionists-from-flushing-baby-remains-into-public-water-systems?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Bill+Would+Block+Abortionists+From+Flushing+Baby+Remains+Into+Public+Water+Systems" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an exclusive</a> on a bill from Congressman Brandon Gill that would make it illegal to dump aborted baby remains into publicly-owned water systems.
The suggestion from Koretzky was that the article wasn’t balanced enough. Now, if he has an abortionist who would like to defend flushing babies down the toilet, we’d love to dig into that belief. But we never believed the issue was with our journalism, and now, that’s confirmed.
Koretzky was looking for an excuse to cancel Olohan because Sandberg and the pronoun mafia demanded he do so, and the angry left is the real ombudsman of the liberal media elite. And Sandberg was so proud of his work that he ran to the Columbia Journalism Review to tell the story of how he preserved a safe space for his LGBTQ students.
Any suggestion that MediaFest will be a conference with balance is delusional. One of the featured speakers will be New York Times grifter Nikole Hannah-Jones, who has made <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/1619-project-creator-raked-in-1m-last-year-for-college-speeches-on-inequality?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=1619+Project+Creator+Raked+In+%241M%2B+Last+Year+For+College+Speeches+On+Inequality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">millions of dollars</a> spreading lies through the 1619 Project, which argues that systemic racism is in America’s DNA.
We challenge the Society of Professional Journalists to find a single piece of balanced work she’s ever produced, but guarantee that it will find them all as radical as her most recent piece, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/28/magazine/charlie-kirk-rhetoric.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attacked Charlie Kirk as a bigot</a> just a few days after he was laid to rest.
Her session at MediaFest is titled, “How journalists can (and should) cover attempts to erase Black history.” It will be moderated by Koretzky’s colleague at Society of Professional Journalists, Celia Wexler, who serves as the group’s Washington, D.C., president.
We don’t expect Koretzky to get it, nor do we understand how he’s been put in charge of ethics of anything. His body of work includes a 2019 piece inspired by a convention he attended with high school journalists — about all the sex he’s had in his life.
We wish we were joking. Its <a href="https://journoterrorist.com/2019/04/11/news-to-me/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opening line</a> (we don’t recommend clicking, but it’s hard to believe without the proof) is: “Almost all the sex I’ve had is because of journalism.” It goes on to tell the tale about a time a “sexual encounter” at a journalism conference ended in “bloodshed” because he was bitten on the penis.
Again, he was inspired to write this because he was “presenting a couple of sessions tomorrow to high school journalists.”
A year later, <a href="https://journoterrorist.com/2020/02/12/banned/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">he wrote</a> about how he himself was now banned from attending certain journalism events because, he transparently explains, the aforementioned article on his sexcapades.
“We also were contacted by students and spoke with members who were extremely concerned about your blog post related to seemingly non-consensual sex and journalism conventions,” he says he was told. There was also an accusation that he told a student he could “make or break her career.” He denies it.
We’re partly glad Olohan is, as the kids say, “marked safe” from the MediaFest confab, but also disheartened.
Every few years, the liberal media elite proclaim that they care about being balanced and hearing both sides. And we’re sure that every few years there are people who believe them. Don’t be one of those people.
Young journalists don’t need MediaFest or the Society of Professional Journalists anymore. They will teach you to do everything wrong, and you’ll end up like Koretzky or Sandberg.
There are now great alternatives, like the National Journalism Center, The Fund For American Studies, and even conservative undergraduate journalism programs like the one at Hillsdale College.
The young journalists gathering at MediaFest are being trained to believe that there is only one set of acceptable facts, even if it doesn’t fall on the same side as objective truth. The prospect of hearing the other side has media advisers like he/him Sandberg throwing up arms.
The media elite don’t actually believe there are two sides. That’s why when Elon Musk opened up X to free speech, they ran away to BlueSky — which, not coincidentally, is where you can find most of the journalists featured on MediaFest’s panels.
But they’re also not the real elite anymore. Their monopoly on information has shattered, in a large part because Americans are increasingly turning to reporters like Olohan and The Daily Wire for news.

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MediaFest, And Why There’s No Hope For Liberal Journalism

Mainstream Media

Media Bias

New York Times

Nikole Hannah-Jones

On October 7, 2023, Hamas was parading in the streets.
The terrorist group in the Gaza Strip had perpetrated one of the most shocking atrocities in history, delivering what it believed would be a lasting body blow to Israel. It was so proud of the spectacle that it put its rape and torture of Israeli civilians live on camera for the world to see.
If you listen to speeches at the United Nations or read mainstream media headlines two years on, you&#8217;d think Israel is on the brink of collapse — trapped in an unprecedented crisis that began with the Hamas terrorist attack. Hamas is celebrating today&#8217;s anniversary, with leadership <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/25/middleeast/hamas-official-oct-7-golden-moment-intl">telling</a> CNN that the attack created a “golden moment for the world to change the history.”
But here in the real world, things haven’t turned out quite like the terrorists had hoped.
Gaza, which Israel mistakenly ceded to the Palestinians two decades ago, is now a parking lot. Nearly every prominent Hamas leader is dead. The terror groups&#8217; Arab allies, including the Qataris who once bankrolled them, are now engaging with the United States and Israel on a negotiated surrender. 
And on top of all that: Israel has never been more secure. 
With a strengthened resolve, justified desire for retribution, and a pledge to its people that it would never let an attack like October 7 happen again, the Jewish state has managed to wipe out more than just Hamas.
Two years ago, Israel was encircled by some of the most dangerous and ruthless enemies in the region. A lot has changed since then.
Hezbollah had over 100,000 rockets trained at Israel&#8217;s northern border two years ago. Israel has since decimated its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hezbollah-terrorist-leader-hassan-nasrallah-dead-following-israeli-air-strike">leadership</a> and ranks with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0kn7BQ4IhM">exploding beepers.</a>
Former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is hiding out in Russia, and the new regime in Damascus has signaled a willingness to open relations with Israel. And most importantly, Israel, with the help of President Donald Trump and a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-to-win-a-war-in-37-hours-daily-wire-goes-inside-whiteman-air-force-base">fleet of B-2 bombers</a>, carried out attack plans years in the making to decimate Iran’s leadership and nuclear capabilities. 
Even the economic boycotts so popular among American leftists have been parried, with <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-05/israel-s-stock-market-has-been-soaring-despite-years-of-war?embedded-checkout=true">Israel&#8217;s economy soaring</a>.
Only one threat remains: the group that lit the match two years ago.
Hamas&#8217; infrastructure is crumbling, its leadership is hiding or being hunted down, and its grip on Gaza is weakening by the day. Its demise appears to be a question of when, not if. And that &#8220;when&#8221; feels fast approaching. 
If Hamas doesn&#8217;t agree to Trump&#8217;s peace terms, the president has promised &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hamas-faces-complete-obliteration-if-it-wont-give-up-gaza-trump-says">complete obliteration</a>&#8221; of the terrorist group. We suggest calling the Ayatollah and asking how calling Trump&#8217;s bluff worked out for Iran.
There are certainly criticisms of how Israel accomplished this. Some say Israel took too long to exact revenge for the atrocities of October 7, arguing that anti-Israel sentiment grew as the world saw Israel carry out its devastating response. Some say Israel went too far, creating a public relations crisis with footage of the aftermath of its offensive. 
But Israel’s critics, like Greta Thunberg, were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/israel-to-show-greta-thunberg-graphic-footage-of-hamas-october-7-massacre">less moved when they were shown footage</a> of what Hamas did on October 7. Almost as if Israel’s haters need no reason to hate the Jewish State other than the fact that it’s a Jewish state? 
As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/12/nyregion/mamdani-arrest-netanyahu-nyc-mayor.html">leftists chirp</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-viral-story-of-gaza-child-gunned-down-by-israel-officially-debunked-the-boy-is-alive">spread lies</a>, Israel is winning, decisively putting an end to those who seek its destruction. And that’s the toughest pill for Israel’s haters to swallow.

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The Editors

MediaFest, And Why There’s No Hope For Liberal Journalism

Two Years After October 7: Israel Isn’t Dead. Hamas Will Be Soon.