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Last week, in Olympia, Washington, a group of three right-wing media figures filed a lawsuit confronting a question that is becoming increasingly fraught across the United States: who is and is not a journalist in a government building. The plaintiffs—Brandi Kruse, a podcaster; Ari Hoffman, a talk radio host; and Jonathan Choe, a freelancer and senior journalism fellow at the Discovery Institute, a conservative think tank—wish to be provided permanent press passes to the statehouse and to have press credentialing guidelines overhauled. The defendants—the Capitol Correspondents Association and the Washington House of Representatives—have denied them access because of their involvement with political advocacy; all three have accepted payment from political organizations.

The lawsuit emerged from a series of recent events that have complicated life for political journalists in Olympia.…