Saint Cloud Times: "Audio, video ban is troubling"

[Avidor]

http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080413/OPINION/104130018/1006

Good morning, St. Cloud area.

An early morning call to the executive editor on April 5 prompts this column.

The call was from Times reporter Lawrence Schumacher, who was covering the 6th Congressional District GOP nominating convention at the Schwan Center at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

Schumacher had been told by 6th Congressional District Republican Party Chairman Mark Swanson that no video cameras or audio recording devices were allowed in the hall. All those entering the meeting area, including journalists, were barred from shooting video or recording audio of the convention speeches.

The order came from the Minnesota 6th District Republicans executive board.

This was a strange situation but another and growing example of what journalists have to battle in our effort to cover news.

In today's media world, reporters can do their work using more than a notebook and pen. Our staffers can cover a news story with words, still photos, audio and video. These restrictions on what equipment reporters can use is an abridgment of the journalist's effort to cover the news.

The reasons for the audio/video ban are baffling.

It appears that Rep. Michele Bachmann, the Republican incumbent, has shown up in several YouTube.com videos in less than flattering ways because people altered the video. To avoid giving people more fodder to make fun of the first-term House member, the district's executive committee decided to block any audio or video from the convention sessions.

The committee also decided to bar video and audio because more than 90 people were scheduled to go to the microphones and speak during the endorsement sessions, Swanson said. Some of those people may have been nervous and said things they later regretted, Swanson said.

He compared it to a family picnic. And you don't want news cameras showing up at a family picnic, he said.

So Schumacher covered the event with a live blog and wrote a story for print and online ... without video or audio clips of the speeches. He did do a video in the hallways, which was allowed by Swanson. To his credit, Swanson appeared in the video and explained his decision. That was a good thing.

The state's Open Meeting laws don't apply to private party endorsement conventions. And again, we were allowed to cover the event, just not with video or audio.

Also, it is important to note that neither Bachmann nor her staff were consulted on the decision about barring video and audio from the sessions. Swanson and Bachman's press secretary, Stephen Miller, both told me that Bachmann wasn't involved in the decision.

My question to Miller: Did the congresswoman support the decision to bar video and audio? Unfortunately, I was unable to get in contact with Bachmann for this column. The next time we have a chance to chat I plan to ask her.

Again, I share this story with readers because there is an alarming increase in people trying to control what devices will be allowed into news events and how often online news stories or blogs can be updated.

It's all about control. These moves also raise red flags for journalists because we wonder what people want to hide or block access to. Since when are district nominating conventions to pick a candidate to run for the U.S. House not a news event the public needs to know about in an unfettered and unrestricted manner?

Most of the time candidates and political parties want all the coverage they can get.

A final note: After the story was reported, 6th District DFL Party Chairwoman Nancy Schumacher contacted our reporter Lawrence Schumacher (no relation) this week and invited him to cover their convention April 26 in Andover and to bring his video equipment and talk to whomever he wanted.

[hermetic]

1. There was no ban on blogging

or handwriting, though, right? So. Did any of it get posted? What was said that should be covered up? Oh yeah, nothing. Just more stupidity. Probably did us a favor by sparing bandwidth.

I know, I know, you want more photo ops to show them up as the idiots they truly are. Instead you got another step down fascist road.

I do truly hope that that there are more of us than there are of them. But stuff like this makes me more doubtful.

[CatholicEdHead]

2. There will still be backlash over this even in the 6th

Most people in the state want open meeting laws for public officials regardless of party. More and more Republicans will look at the 6th CD Convention as trying to keep all but the "loyalists" in. The normal approach is to let all in, and if some of the newer alternative media (on both sides) goes wing-nutty then that is their luck. They rise and fall on what they put out, but it is still there.

Bachmann here seems to be the one not in control and anyone who puts YouTube media up in control. Being a congressperson that allows themselves to be rolled over is not someone many people want in office. Light bulb scandals only hurt her cause for re-election. The 6th GOP knows they need to be straightforward quickly or Bachmann will be out in no time. Many 6th Republicans may not vote for a DFLer but they will not cast one for Bachmann.

:hi: To Jason Lewis' producers again, plug us anytime :evilgrin:

[dflprincess]

3. Like a video would have to be altered

to show Bachmann in an unflattering light.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Has she been on C-SPAN recently for any floor speeches?

T