Rep. Andy Harris won’t apologize to the student reporter he threatened to refer to prosecutors for recording him
So much for asking questions.
Representative Andy Harris isn’t apologizing to the student journalist he threatened to refer to prosecutors for recording him. Instead, the Maryland Republican is questioning whether she understands what journalists are supposed to do.
During an October 16 interview with FOX45’s In Depth, Harris defended his confrontation with Cat Murphy, a University of Maryland graduate student reporting for Capital News Service. Asked whether he owed Murphy an apology, Harris said he would explain what bothered him if she called him.
“She’s a journalism student. I think she should realize that’s not really your purpose,” Harris said, referring to Murphy’s criticism of how he was conducting a post-debate press gathering. Harris also dismissed the attention surrounding the incident, saying it was “not very newsworthy that the liberal media badgers a conservative politician.” He argued that what deserved attention was his decision to push back against the media.
Harris says the journalist was the one out of line
The confrontation happened October 13 after Harris debated Democratic challenger Dan Schwartz in Cambridge, Maryland. Reporters gathered afterward to question the congressman, but tensions rose when Murphy urged Harris to treat other reporters’ questions with respect before asking her own.
Harris refused to answer her questions and challenged her right to record him on her phone, citing Maryland’s all-party consent law. He threatened to refer her to prosecutors, insisting she was violating the law.
Murphy pointed out that other people in the room were recording, too. She then tried to ask Harris about the war in Iran, but he continued objecting to her recording and eventually left without answering further questions.
Harris maintained that Murphy had criticized the way he was conducting the press gathering instead of asking a question. When the interviewer asked whether it was his role to tell a reporter how to do her job, he responded that Murphy had been telling him how to do his.
Legal experts say the recording law doesn’t cover the exchange
Maryland generally requires all parties to consent before recording private conversations. But that doesn’t automatically mean recording a public exchange with an elected official is illegal, and disputes over filming in public have come up before.
Attorney Jeremy Eldridge told CBS News Baltimore that the law did not apply to the encounter because Harris was speaking with reporters in a public setting where he had no reasonable expectation of privacy. Rafael Lorente, dean of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, also defended Murphy. In a statement, he said she was credentialed to report for Capital News Service and had recorded openly alongside other news outlets in a public space.
Murphy, meanwhile, has said she has no intention of stopping her coverage of Harris. She said she had been focused on doing her job and asking the questions she wanted answered.
Harris said he would be willing to discuss the incident with Murphy if she contacted him. He has not offered a direct apology, and he continues to frame the encounter as a dispute over how the press treats conservative politicians
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