Nebraska Democratic Party: Governor Tries to Teach Lesson At UNL

Governor Tries to Teach Lesson At UNL

Apr 04, 09:29 AM CST

Governor Heineman did his best yesterday to teach Nebraska’s next generation of journalists a lesson: Cross this administration, and you will pay the consequences.

The Daily Nebraskan – UNL’s Student Newspaper – published a story about Timothy Haverkamp, who was convicted for his role in two grisly murders near Rulo in 1985. Haverkamp currently gives tours at the Governor’s Mansion.

Well, Governor Heineman and his staff weren’t too fond of the story. So what does the Heineman administration do when reporters don’t play by their rules?

“We are kind of at a point where we feel we need to cut ties (with the Daily Nebraskan),” said Heineman’s Deputy Communications Director Ashley Cradduck…

On Thursday, Cradduck continued: “I wouldn’t say that the story was inaccurate, but I would say some things were taken out of context. It’s not entirely inaccurate, but it’s not the full picture, either.”

She then said the Daily Nebraskan would no longer receive press releases from the governor’s office and the newspaper’s reporters would be banned from covering the governor’s press conferences at the State Capitol.

If Daily Nebraskan reporters were at one of the governor’s press conferences at the Capitol “I would ask the security to see if they could remove (the reporters),” Cradduck said.

When the Daily Nebraskan tried to get a written copy of the new policy, Heineman’s Communications Director Jen Rae Hein refused to go on record with a comment.

She then hung up the phone. (Emphasis Added)

Classy. Of course, even the folks at the Governor’s Mansion eventually figured out that they couldn’t remove reporters from a public building like the State Capitol, so the policy was amended to just refrain from sending the DN any of their press releases.

I applaud the Daily Nebraskan for sticking to their guns:

The response of the governor’s office was a bad way to deal with the media, said Adam Goldstein, the attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center.

“It’s indistinguishable from a 2-year-old’s temper tantrum,” Goldstein said. “Except the 2-year-old isn’t breaking the law.”

...Bob Steele, a media ethicist at the Poynter Institute, a journalism training center, said that the governor’s office should provide reasonable access and response to journalists…

“The fact that they tried to persuade the coverage is a choice they can make,” Steele said, “but to then follow up with a ban on the Daily Nebraskan in terms of communication with the governor’s office, that’s unwise, unprofessional and counter to the public interest.”

“Unwise, Unprofessional, and Counter to the Public Interest” sounds like a great slogan for Heineman’s 2010 re-election campaign. I’d call Jen Rae Hein to suggest it but I’m afraid she’d hang up on me… and call security.

– by Eric Van Horn | Send this to a friend

Sounds like our Governor is a great candidate for Keith Olbermann’s “Worst Person in the World” award.

He should at least take the bronze.
— Brian T. Osborn Apr 04, 09:00 PM CST #
Listen – the DN is a rag – so called “reporters” from the DN should never have been at the Press Conferences anyway. What the Gov should do now and should have done a long time ago, is cut state funding and let the “paper” survive without the help of the taxpayers.

Perhaps some records requests of the DN could expose it for what it is? I wonder what they do with their money?

Time to find out.
— Paul Apr 06, 11:13 AM CST #
Yeah, let’s crush those kids that are trying to learn how to become professional journalists, What makes them think they have the right to publish anything that wasn’t prepared for them by the propaganda ministry, ahem, excuse me, the governor’s office?

Don’t those kids know that only the official version of the truth can be printed? And let’s not be wasting any government money on trying to improve their minds. Let’s waste it on football!
— Brian T. Osborn Apr 06, 05:28 PM CST #
The trouble is the GOP owns the main media and when some young journalists attempt to tell the truth, they are leaning a hard lesson now. By the time they get to the top they will be well brain washed to ignore the truth and tell the spin.
— Joan Thomson Apr 07, 12:32 AM CST #