That’s So Craven

Last week, counter to what his name might suggest, Don Craven stood up for his principles, and those of journalists, by resigning as chief executive of the Illinois Press Association. Under his authority as the group’s CEO and legal counsel, Craven had added the IPA to a lawsuit brought by press groups against the Trump administration over its arrests and aggressive physical tactics against reporters covering protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and troop deployments in the Chicago area. Not so fast, the IPA’s board responded. It ordered Craven to remove the association’s name from the list of plaintiffs, according to an email he wrote to colleagues. Craven complied—and promptly quit in protest. In his email, Craven wrote that the lawsuit’s aim was “to preserve and protect the First Amendment rights of journalists.” Surely that’s a concept a press association can get behind.