Open letter to "the Media"

In case you don't know, Marty Esquivel and the board are going to begin the process of pushing through a policy change tonight.  Though it is an effort to keep me from standing up a public fora and criticizing them and their public service, there will be a tangential affect on the media.  They can't restrict the free exercise of my right to be the press without restricting theirs.  To keep me from videotaping them from where I need to, they have to impose the same restrictions on "the media" as well.

They would really rather, is that I not stand up during the next public forum and ask questions they don't want to answer.  Questions they cannot summon the character and the courage to answer in public and on the record;

why students are expected to model and promote honest accountability to a nationally recognized, accepted and respected code of ethics, and school board members and senior administrators are not?

or,

Why will they not produce ethically redacted findings of independent investigations into felony public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS Police force?

or,

Why will they not commission an impartial examination and review of APS executive and administrative standards of conduct and competence, and then produce the findings to public knowledge?

or,

any other question to which a candid, forthright and honest response would mean admission of public incompetence or corruption in the leadership of the APS.

In their new public participation policy; the policy for the "media" is laid out.  There is a controversy of the use of the phrase the media, when what we're really talking about is the press, and the protection provided for them by the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Media Etiquette

Members of the media are welcome at public meetings of the Board of Education.  Members of the media and media equipment shall be required to video and photograph from a designated media representative area of the room in which the Board of Education Meeting is being held.

Media representatives shall cooperate with district staff regarding placement of equipment, photography and video requirements or be subject to removal from the meeting.

"The media", the Journal, KRQE, KOAT, KOB TV, will stand in the corner to record any aspect of school board meetings. If from that corner, they cannot photograph the face of all of the participates, too bad.

If they don't like it, and stop to protest, a publicly funded private police force, a ####king Praetorian Guard* will escort them off "their" property.

Really? !

The Open Meetings Act requires the APS School Board to make reasonable accommodations for the press to photograph, videotape or otherwise record any public meeting.

Update: I stand corrected; the Open Meetings Act requires reasonable accommodation any person desiring to attend the meeting.

Reasonable accommodation can mean two things;

1.  they get to tell the press and the people, where they are required stand, or

2.  they get to tell the press and the people, where they can not stand; for some good and ethical reason like a fire lane, respect for personal spaces, whatever.

The one thing is in board member and senior administrators' personal interests and the other in the interests of a free press.

You would think "the media" would be howling.

One wonders why they aren't.

Esquivel's no more MacQuigg policy acknowledges that holding up a poster during a public meeting, and providing the poster interferes with no other aspect of the meeting "may be generally acceptable".

*

Tell that to these people.

Tell that to this guy.

Sure; you can hold up a poster; outside.  hahaha 

APS COO Brad Winter, APS Chief of Police Steve Tellez,
a uniform, a badge, a gun, and a have a nice day sir.





photos Mark Bralley