John McCormack of the National Review writes, "I hope that Jason [Mattera] and YAF [Young America's Foundation] reconsider" their denial of press credentials for our CampusProgress.org student reporter, Julie Siegel, to cover the annual YAF Conservative Student Conference. Way to go, John!

As McCormack notes, Campus Progress granted him press credentials to cover our National Student Conference last week. And, as CampusProgress.org editor Elana Berkowitz noted on C-SPAN's Washington Journal on Saturday, YAF press gatekeeper Jason Mattera himself has written two years in a row about the Campus Progress conference for National Review.

McCormack writes that he would prefer that CampusProgress.org interns attend conservative conferences as press rather than as students. He says that in the past our interns have attended these events "disguised" as conservatives. For the record, that's not correct. Our students have attended the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and the College Republicans and College Democrats conventions. Although we have sometimes referred to them as blogging "undercover," and they did not go to the podium and turn themselves in, nor did they misrepresent anything: They didn't pretend to hold conservative views, and when asked they said they were interns at the Center for American Progress / Campus Progress. They attended as students, which they were. They wrote about their experiences on the CampusProgress.org blog, but there was no prohibition against that. We have admitted conservatives students to our conference, and we wouldn't be surprised or upset if they blogged about their experiences. (Update -- in fact, read about Sara Gordon in this post.) We're proud of our programs, and we are committed to the free exchange of ideas.