In American News and Information Services, Inc. v. Gore ("American News") the Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint today alleging that the San Diego County Sheriff's Department uses government-issued press credentials to deny disfavored members of the media access to public information. Link to article by Ken Stone at the RamonaPatch: "Ramona Journalist Claims 'Retaliatory Animus' in First Amendment Lawsuit."
The Amended Complaint at paragraph 192 includes these comments made by San Diego County Sheriff's Department Public Affairs Director Jan Caldwell, a Defendant in the American News lawsuit, at a Society of Professional Journalists meeting about access to public information: [Link to Video]
“Um first of all and my first point I want to make is be nice to me, I mean seriously be nice to me because I’m a mirror and I will reflect how you treat me. If you are rude, if you are obnoxious, if you are demanding, if you call me a liar, I will probably not talk to you anymore.
“And there’s only one Sheriff’s Department in town and you can go talk to all the deputies all you want, but there’s one PIO [Public Information Officer], just be nice to me. If you’re nice to me and when I say I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to that but I’m sorry I can’t talk about that, I’m not lying, I’m not lying to you. Thirty Two years with the FBI, six years with the Sheriff’s Department I believe I have Integrity, because if you don’t have integrity you don’t have a good soul, then you have nothing. That’s my soapbox on that.
“Now we’re getting into a whole other area with regard to the, and this may be a panel for next year, journalism credentials and who should have them and should we have them and I would al… I’m gonna throw that back on you all in a minute to find out what you think.”
“Because you can sit with your Apple laptop in your fuzzy slippers, you can be eight hundred pounds, a disabled man who can’t get out of bed and be a journalist, because you can blog something.
“Does that give you the right because you blog in your fuzzy slippers out of your bedroom, and you don’t go out, and you haven’t gotten that degree? Should you be called a journalist or should you be like Pauline ??? who graduated from Journalism school and has been doing a long time or J.W or Dennis I mean are you on the same par?
“In my estimation, and I’d like to hear from Darren and Michael on that no, because Pauline and J.W. and Matt and the others that have been doing this a long time know the questions to ask, as will you. But if you’re sitting at home on your laptop and you’re blogging and you just want to get under my skin for your city beat, I love that then yea, so I drop that out on you all what do you think about that?”
“Um first of all and my first point I want to make is be nice to me, I mean seriously be nice to me because I’m a mirror and I will reflect how you treat me. If you are rude, if you are obnoxious, if you are demanding, if you call me a liar, I will probably not talk to you anymore.
“And there’s only one Sheriff’s Department in town and you can go talk to all the deputies all you want, but there’s one PIO [Public Information Officer], just be nice to me. If you’re nice to me and when I say I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to that but I’m sorry I can’t talk about that, I’m not lying, I’m not lying to you. Thirty Two years with the FBI, six years with the Sheriff’s Department I believe I have Integrity, because if you don’t have integrity you don’t have a good soul, then you have nothing. That’s my soapbox on that.
“Now we’re getting into a whole other area with regard to the, and this may be a panel for next year, journalism credentials and who should have them and should we have them and I would al… I’m gonna throw that back on you all in a minute to find out what you think.”
“Because you can sit with your Apple laptop in your fuzzy slippers, you can be eight hundred pounds, a disabled man who can’t get out of bed and be a journalist, because you can blog something.
“Does that give you the right because you blog in your fuzzy slippers out of your bedroom, and you don’t go out, and you haven’t gotten that degree? Should you be called a journalist or should you be like Pauline ??? who graduated from Journalism school and has been doing a long time or J.W or Dennis I mean are you on the same par?
“In my estimation, and I’d like to hear from Darren and Michael on that no, because Pauline and J.W. and Matt and the others that have been doing this a long time know the questions to ask, as will you. But if you’re sitting at home on your laptop and you’re blogging and you just want to get under my skin for your city beat, I love that then yea, so I drop that out on you all what do you think about that?”
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.