Reporter removed from congressional town hall in New York for taking pictures

David McKay Wilson, a reporter for The Journal News, was removed from a town hall hosted by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., in Mahopac, New York, on June 8, 2025, after he photographed one of the congressman’s staff members.

Wilson told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was checking in at the press table at the town hall, which took place at a local high school in New York’s lower Hudson Valley, when a staff member told him that journalists could listen, record and photograph Lawler and attendees, but not members of his staff.

“We’re in a public place, someone is doing their public job, and the First Amendment to the Constitution allows me to take such a picture, despite their telling me not to,” Wilson told the Tracker.

At the time, Wilson was reporting on one of Lawler’s staff members, Erin Crowley, who also serves as a county legislator. He took a photograph of her at the check-in desk.

“Be nice,” Crowley told him.

About 10 minutes later, another staff member approached Wilson and told him he had spoken with Wilson’s editor and complained that Wilson had violated the rules for journalists. He was then told to leave, which he did.

A friend eventually sent Wilson a tape of the event, and he was able to report on it in detail.

Wilson said that staff members knew he was asking questions about Crowley when they restricted his photography.

Wilson said he had long written critically about Lawler and that the congressman’s office had objected to his coverage. Lawler has included Wilson on his list of “Festivus” grievances (inspired by a running gag from the TV show “Seinfeld”). Lawler wrote about Wilson: “DMW’s far-left bias is so absurd that he would find a way to criticize a cure for cancer if a Republican came up with it.”

In 2023, Lawler instituted a press ban at his congressional town hall meetings. Wilson attended one that year as a constituent, not a member of the press, but was asked to not report what he heard. A Journal News photographer who accompanied him there was prohibited from attending because he lived outside the district.

Lawler’s press ban was rescinded in 2024. In announcing the change, he said he had imposed it to limit criticism of his policies and to make his town halls “as hospitable and welcoming as possible to my constituents,” The Journal News reported.