The WHCA shooting has a criminal complaint, an affidavit and a hotel timeline. [1][2] It does not yet have a press-freedom rule, lawsuit or order. Monday's brief called the dinner a boundary case, warning that a press event under attack is not automatically a press-suppression case. Tuesday has not changed that.

The Justice Department filings charge and describe alleged conduct. Reuters and WBAL describe Blanche's targeting account, travel, hotel booking and courtroom posture. [3][4] None supplies a credential rule, access restriction, press-corps lawsuit, WHCA policy change or government order aimed at journalists.

That absence matters because the press-freedom file is already crowded with real documents elsewhere. Stars and Stripes has an ombudsman firing. WHCA has a security and court case. Confusing the two helps nobody except people who prefer sweeping claims to documents.

X will keep treating the dinner through alleged motive and institutional hostility. The mainstream file may keep treating the press setting as atmosphere. The paper's position is stricter: the ballroom made the case visible, but only a press-specific act would make it a press-freedom case.

That distinction is not caution for its own sake. It preserves outrage for the documents that actually narrow journalism.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington