MediaFest25 is coming under fire after canceling remarks from two conservative journalists, turning the event into a leftist echo chamber.
Mary Margaret Olohan and Virginia Allen are being “blocked” from speaking to the gathering of young, aspiring journalists over complaints about their coverage. Specifically, Olohan reveals in an X post, their “work covering gender ideology and abortion” and immigration.
Look:
MediaFest, the nation’s largest conference of student journos, is blocking @Virginia_Allen5 and myself from speaking to aspiring young journalists.
Why? Because of my work covering gender ideology and abortion, and Virginia’s work covering immigration.https://t.co/oXTZzwG6kw
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 13, 2025
The complaint reportedly came from the general manager of student media at Oregon State University, Steven Sandberg, who revealed the nature of his concerns to the Columbia Journalism Review.
“These speakers’ work doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” Sandberg reportedly said. “LGBTQ students are feeling targeted by our administration, by the government, and by society. So I was disappointed to see them bring in people who espoused anti-LGBT views.”
But when their invites were officially recinded in July, the ladies were given a different excuse, according to The Liberty Daily.
“‘The MediaFest organizers have accuracy issues with two of your panelists, Virginia Allen from The Daily Signal and Mary Margaret Olohan from The Daily Wire,’ wrote Michael Koretzky, MediaFest convention director, in a July email obtained by The Daily Signal,” the outlet reported.
MediaFest is rife with speakers from the likes of CNN, The Washington Post, NPR, ProPublica, Politico, etc.
X users reacted to the decision to pull the conservative voices:
Steven Sandberg, the woke assistant director of student media at @OregonState, is the one who complained to organizer @spj_tweets. He represents how woke fundamentalists compromise media leadership and institutions with political agendas. He threatened to ban OSU media students… pic.twitter.com/LEjEOVjoWI
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) October 14, 2025
Ridiculous. You do great work.
— Mocking SF Values (@Mockingsfvalues) October 14, 2025
Horrid, but not unexpected
— Wsecore51 (@wsecore51) October 13, 2025
Aspiring propagandists they mean. No actual journalists allowed.
— MikeMack33 (@mike95589) October 14, 2025
So much for their talk about “free speech”. They are such hypocrites
— Nottodayfay. (@fullofsighs33) October 14, 2025
Take it in the halls. Guerilla journalism. Speak to the students where the organizers have little to no control. Stop letting them dictate your speech.
— TungstenRain (@Tungsten_Rain) October 13, 2025
This communist media propaganda BS should be shutdown. If the truth is so objectionable then the lies and BS should be barred. Both sides or no sides.
— WVGunnyUSMC (@WvGunny26559) October 15, 2025
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Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.
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