Comping The Press

I can appreciate the Press needing to get somewhere first or perhaps getting to meet and interview someone prior to an event, but when the hell did they start getting to eat for free? Or getting to do anything for free for that matter. How is it, that by uttering, "we would like to cover..." equates to complimentary tickets to an event?

Perhaps this has more to do with manners than it is directed at the press...
But i'm sure this is probably something everyone who has hosted an event has had to experience but has pushed aside believing it's not worth fussing over because any negative publicity isn't worth the comps you would have to fork out.

Well this particular case really irks me and I just need to vent. So here it goes.

Not so recently, this no name magazine from Long Island (I won't name names... ) wanted to come to an event I was hosting and "demanded" 2 complimentary tickets.
Perhaps I wouldn't be so flustered if they weren't so cheap and unprofessional about it in the first place.
Seriously... Other venues charge close to $100 per head for similar events, but our tickets are $25 a piece you cheap bastards...
Anyways, things were fishy from the beginning. The individual used their personal email to contact us and claimed they wrote for a certain magazine based out of Long Island. (Interestingly enough, after doing some research on the magazine, it's extremely low circulating and is distributed mostly at CVS) Then they skirted around the "Press" issue and dropped hints of getting comped tickets like it was going out of style.

This just rubbed my co-worker and I the wrong way, and we just told them they needed to fork over the cash at the door. Come to think of it, if a local high school newspaper wanted to do a piece on our event, they would introduce themselves, offer credible references and make an attempt to communicate before asking really politely for free shit.
Well long story short, a few hours after being denied free tickets, they weren't interested in the event anymore and had the last word, "...we will not be attending, we usually get comped at these tastings..."

What ever dude...