March 31, 2003

Update on 3/27 News Conference Incident

Well, there's been a short flurry of emails this morning between myself and Sarah Bott, communications director at the Mayor's office. For her part, it's being described as a "miscommunication" somewhere.

While this is, of course, entirely possible, I'm still awaiting an answer to the most pressing questions which would likely narrow down just where such a possible miscommunication occurred:

What, precisely, were Bott and Sgt. Schmautz heading down to the lobby to tell me? At the time, I was upstairs with my "police escort" while a woman named Terry asked for corporate ID and said the above pair had just gone downstairs to tell me I wasn't being allowed to attend.

Who is this Terry person anyway, and what was she told and what was she not told about my situation prior to Bott and Schmautz heading downstairs?

These would seem to be the a couple of the central questions at this particular moment, wouldn't they?

Thus far, there's been more than enough time in email to pitch to me various formulations on where the "miscommunication" occurred, but frankly, I would have preferred that time be used to answer the above questions instead. It would seem that the missed lobby conversation especially is rather central to the reasons for the entire incident in the first place.

One thing I do know for certain, however: According to Bott, the "protocols changed prior to the last news conference to ask media to present credentials." Which opens up one other question, of course.

Why, between the "Operation Safe City" news conference and that of March 27, was the "open" policy which stated that they do not "restrict access" to City news conferences changed to require the presentation press credentials?

Posted at 10:13 AM | PermalinkComments (2) | TrackBacks (2)
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Comments (2)

  1. The One True b!X on 31 Mar 2003

    I should also state, for the record, that in Bott's second email to me this morning, she said, "I don't know why you didn't attend the news conference."

    Which doesn't quite match up with the mystery Terry telling me that Bott and Schmautz were on their way to the lobby to turn me away.

    If anyone should know why I didn't attend, one would think it would be the person who was heading to the lobby to tell me I wasn't going to be allowed to attend.

    Alternatively, the mystery Terry (who remains unidentified) might indeed have told me I was being barred, when in reality Bott and Schmautz were on their way to the lobby so that Bott could speak to me in person and make a determination.

    But if this is the case, exactly how much time out of Bott's "20-30" media inquiries she gets every day would she have to take to explain this to me?

    It all seems like whatever explanation is the truth of the matter would be fairly straightforward to explain to me.

    Instead, it would seem that I am back in the waiting game.

  2. Elaine on 31 Mar 2003

    I'm telling you -- It's an emerging "Fear of Bloggers."

Trackbacks (2)

  1. More on Portland's Apparent "No Indy Press" Stance on 31 Mar 2003

    Bix has an update on his news conference run-in from last week. Good to read he's gotten a response, curious to see what comes of the issue of what passes for "credentials" in this town.

  2. Press Conference Access Redux on 02 Apr 2003

    Bix has more on his press conference woes, as do I: A mail toSarah Bott, in the mayor's press office, didn't yield a lot to explain why they would have bounced an uncredentialed reporter from a press conference. In fact, she said the policy for access ...