Opinion
New mayor should take lead in altering proposal to interfere with the work of local journalists
With the recent swearing-in of Eugene Tewalt as Mayor of the Town of Front Royal, we at the Royal Examiner trust that he will turn his attention immediately to a misguided public relations draft proposal that would, if enacted, be a blue print to managing the way local reporters do their jobs.
Todd Jones, whose job description is the town’s “Information Technology Director,” earlier this month put forward a four-part public relations program that included a naive proposal that would bar area journalists from seeking information directly from council members or town officials. In other words, reporters would be required to ask questions through his office and answers would be managed to conform with public policy.
In effect, this would be a way of muzzling the press, a plan doomed to failure before getting off the ground. Reporters would develop their sources anyway, and work around any such short-sighted rule. It isn’t that this ploy has not been attempted many times over the years by public officials in various places.
Hopefully the Town’s elected officials will not allow ‘Taps’ to be blown for open media access to them and their appointed officials as part of a new ‘Communications’ strategy being developed under the impetus of now Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick. Royal Examiner File Photo Veterans Day 2019
Such efforts may reflect ignorance of the way the media works and its overall responsibility of relating the thought processes of public officials to the public they serve. A worst-case scenario for the more suspicious would be a desire to shield those officials from revealing too much about their motives and thought processes.
What is an “information technology director” anyway? There’s nothing in that title that pertains to press and media relations, never mind telling local reporters and editors how to do their jobs. In Front Royal, the community development and tourist information offices are pretty effective, so taking those out of the equation, what does this leave our “information technology director” to do?
The Chamber of Commerce does a good job of encouraging new business; and the revamped Economic Development Authority (EDA) Board of Directors and Administrative staff seem to be working hard at business recruitment and retention under trying circumstances. There are other business-promoting groups who round out that part of the local economy, and the Front Royal Police Department continues to do nice work of public relations in the law enforcement area.
While Jones’ initial Communications Policy draft demonstrated a clear lack of knowledge of the media’s responsibilities, the periodic “Town Hall” meetings he proposes would be a plus, as would assuring that Town departmental staffs present a consistent and accurate response to public inquiries about how Town services work and can best be accessed to the public’s benefit.
Hopefully Jones will follow up his admission to Royal Examiner’s Roger Bianchini when confronted about the media aspect of his proposal with a substantive alteration of his original draft as it applies to the media and its work. Jones’ admission appeared to be a sudden realization that there is a substantive difference between the communications lines between public officials and the press on the one hand, and that between Town staffs and the public as to how Town services work and are accessed.
And if Jones doesn’t make that adjustment to his proposal, it will be up to the town council under the leadership of our new mayor to see that such a change is made that will not set up unjustified barriers between the press, working on the public’s behalf, and the community’s elected and appointed policy makers.
Malcolm Barr Sr., our correspondent, dons his 50-year-old strike placard. Photo/Roger Bianchini
(Malcolm Barr Sr. of Rockland has spent 70 of his 86 years as a local and national reporter, including with the Associated Press, in three countries, including a 25-year stint as a public affairs manager and officer in three federal government departments in Washington, D.C. During his 18 years in Warren County, he has contributed to news coverage by the Warren Sentinel, the Warren County Report, the Royal Examiner, and occasional “Opinion” pieces to the Northern Virginia Daily.)