“I attended a Donald Trump rally in Memphis on Saturday night as a fully credentialed member of the media,” wrote radio host James Edwards in a blog post yesterday. On the sidebar of the post, you’ll find a link to Edwards’ mission statement, which reads in part, “We wish to revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races.”

Edwards has said on his openly pro-white radio show, The Political Cesspool, that “slavery is the greatest thing that ever happened to” black Americans and that “interracial sex is white genocide.” It seems he was granted all the privileges and access of an ordinary member of the press at Trump’s event in Tennessee over the weekend. Edwards’ exhaustive post about the experience, which was spotted by Little Green Footballs and Media Matters, notes that he recorded a 20-minute interview with Donald Trump Jr. and features photos taken from inside the press pen.

Of course, the protections of the First Amendment are afforded to all persons and members of the press, regardless of the repugnancy of their ideologies. If Trump’s campaign had previously displayed any respect at all for the idea of the free press, I suppose you could make an argument that credentialing a notorious white supremacist is a necessary evil to ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard.

But lets have a look at some recent headlines about Trump’s relationship with the media:

And let’s not forget the Time photographer who was choke slammed at a Trump event on Monday. In that case, the assailant was a member of Trump’s Secret Service detail, not a staffer, but it fits with the larger pattern.

The point is that Trump does not accommodate members of the media. He hates them, and treats them accordingly, especially those whose viewpoints don’t line up with his own.

Why was some racist schmuck with a microphone credentialed at an event in his home state after Iowa’s largest and best-regarded newspaper was locked out of an event in Iowa? Maybe because the Trump campaign wanted him there.

Image via The Political Cesspool. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.