William O'Brien, N.H. House Speaker, Bars Concord Monitor From Press Conference

The cartoon, by Mike Marland, prompted Republican House leaders and the Republican State Committee to issue statements calling for a retraction of the cartoon. The newspaper refused to back down, with Concord Monitor Editor Felice Belman saying the cartoon "seemed on point, given last week's circus."

Belman said this morning that she's not sure if the cartoon had anything to do with the newspaper's reporters being shut out of today's event. She said the two reporters weren't given a specific reason for being uninvited to the press conference.

"The House Republican office made it clear how unhappy they were with the cartoon published on our editorial page a few weeks back, and at the time then-Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt did say that he intended to stop talking to the Monitor," Belman said in an email. "But without hearing from the speaker hiimself, I can't really speculate on his motivation."

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