When former FAIR staffer Sam Husseini found out that Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal al-Sa'ud would be speaking at the National Press Club, he thought it might be a good chance to ask a tough question. The National Press Club apparently didn't like that idea.

Husseini writes:

Before the end of the day, I'd received a letter informing me that I was suspended from the National Press Club "due to your conduct at a news conference." The letter, signed by the executive director of the Club, William McCarren, accused me of violating rules prohibiting "boisterous and unseemly conduct or language."

Want to know what the National Press Club thinks is unseemly conduct? Watch for yourself:

For the record, the National Press Club has been taken other actions distinctly at odds with a free and aggressive press. In 2001, Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman wrote about how the Press Club seemed to want to protect Henry Kissinger from critical questions. The moderator explained that if questions about war crimes were asked, it "would take so much time to explain all of the context."

In 2005, Mokhiber attempted to go to a U.S. News & World Report event at the Press Club celebrating "America's Best Leaders." The sponsor? Oil giant BP.

Mokhiber was blocked from entering the event--which, for the record, was being held in the First Amendment Lounge. Why? Probably because Mokihber had attended another U.S. News event at the Press Club earlier that month that was sponsored by tobacco giant Altria. That time Mokhiber asked a question:

Senator Hagel said transparency is critical. What's the deal exactly between U.S. News & World Report and Altria? What are the details of the sponsorship? Members of the social responsibility community refuse to invest in tobacco companies. Did you find it a little odd that a panel on corporate responsibility is being sponsored by a tobacco company?

You can see why the Press Club might not want to have these people in the room. They ask the wrong kinds of questions.

Blogging at SinglePayerAction.org today (5/4/09), Corporate Crime Reporter's Russell Mokhiber describes the contents of a "much-hyped special section on healthcare" from Politico that features below the headline a Matt Wuerker cartoon of "the U.S. healthcare system" as a patient--"and you can't touch patient or you'll get zapped. As in: 'Bzzt! Don't even go near proposing single payer. You'll be called a socialist!'":

The issue is jam-packed with $10,000 full-page ads from the usual suspects: United Health Group, the drug industry (the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association), the high-tech medical equipment industry (Advanced Medical Technology Association) and corporate liberal groups like AARP.

All of which oppose what the majority of doctors and the majority of the American people want--a single-payer, Medicare-for-all, everybody-in, nobody-out, free-choice-of-doctor-and-hospital healthcare system.

The Politico healthcare issue features five news articles and six opinion pieces.

Not one of which mentions single-payer.

Mokhiber can only conclude that "the editors at Politico apparently heeded Wuerker's warning" with "not a mention of single-payer in the entire issue (other than Wuerker's warning)." Listen to the recent FAIR radio show CounterSpin: "Ellen Shaffer on Healthcare" (3/6/09)