For all the years I worked at a newspaper, I had a press pass. It was a laminated card with my picture on it.  The picture was a mug shot and the issuing authority was the county sheriff. I remember the sheriff handing it to me in a nice little flip-open nylon pouch to hang around my neck and saying, “Okay, Lois Lane, this gives you permission to go anywhere that nobody else wants to go. You can even run into buildings that everybody else is running out of. Use it to do good stuff.”

Do good stuff. I tried.

So did Dana Milbank.  After 21 years, Milbank’s White House press pass was denied. He suspects it’s because he’s a Trump critic.

I’m not looking for pity. Trump’s elimination of briefings and other changes have devalued White House coverage anyway. But there’s something wrong with a president having the power to decide which journalists can cover him.

I don’t pity Dana because he’s a big boy with lots of power and he can fight back. I am, however, outraged. The Trump White House has taken to the mattresses.

One other story. My last boss was a bodacious loudmouthed owner of a weekly newspaper that was the official newspaper of the county. I wrote both news and editorial columns. When someone asked her, “what exactly does Susan do at your newspaper?” Bev replied, “She finds out what people are doing and makes them stop it.”

That, right there, was the best description of an editorial writer I had ever seen.

And that’s what Dana Milbank did.