If you subscribe to Jennifer Palmer’s Education Watch newsletter, you’ll read — about an hour and 15 minutes after this newsletter hits your inbox — about U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Jones’ ruling granting KFOR-TV a temporary restraining order against the State Board of Education, its superintendent, Ryan Walters, and it’s spokesman, Dan Isett. In non-lawyer language it says KFOR must be allowed into meetings and press conferences like all other media outlets.
Walters and Isett accused KFOR of reporting false information, declared the 75-year-old station illegitimate, and kept them from covering state business.
The details of Jones’ ruling, which addresses the dangers of allowing a public agency to bar press outlets from public proceedings based on which outlets it likes or dislikes, are available in Jennifer’s newsletter, KFOR’s website and the Oklahoman.
The issue those reports don’t address is that being a member of the press doesn’t come with a special set of privileges. Journalists work on the public’s behalf, attending public meetings on behalf of those who can’t be there themselves, then reporting what occurred.
The Open Records Act and Open Meeting Act weren’t written to make reporters’ jobs easier, they were written to ensure the public had access to the public’s business.
There will be arguments about the First Amendment in this case, about freedom of speech and a free press.
But any press freedom case is really a public freedom case. If an agency arbitrarily bars a reporter, they’re also barring a member of the public. They’re barring a representative of many members of the public.
They’re barring you.
More worth reading:
Who Got Booted From Voter Roll
Hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans whose voter registration was deleted in recent years roughly reflect the overall layout of party affiliation in the state, though Democrats and independents were overrepresented among voters deleted for inactivity. [Oklahoma Voice]
Court Takes Up Indian Eviction Case
The Oklahoma Supreme Court will hear the appeal of a Cherokee Nation citizen who argues state courts lacked the civil jurisdiction to rule on her eviction in a case that could affect eviction proceedings throughout the eastern half of Oklahoma. The case — Paul-Lucas v. Paul-Craven — could become one of the first to address the unclear civil-law effects of the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision, which functionally upheld much of eastern Oklahoma as a series of Indian Country reservations. [NonDoc]
Oklahoma’s Most Wanted
Attorney General Gentner Drummond partnered with the U.S. Marshals Service and other federal, tribal, state, county and local law enforcement agencies to identify Oklahoma’s 10 Most Wanted fugitives. In some instances, a financial reward may be provided to a person who provides information leading to the arrest of a fugitive on the list. [AG]
BONUS:
Here’s the U.S. Senate Committee Report on the July Attempt to Assassinate Donald Trump
Shortly before shots were fired, a US counter sniper saw local law enforcement running toward the building with their guns drawn, but he did not alert the former president from the stage. The US Secret Service counter-sniper told the Committee that while seeing officers with their guns drawn elevated the threat level,the thought to notify someone to get Trump off the stage did not cross [his] mind. [Report]
“I stand by the stuff I say, even the really stupid stuff. I’ll find a way to justify it.”
—Blake Shelton
Ciao for now,
Ted Streuli
Executive Director, Oklahoma Watch
tstreuli@oklahomawatch.org
Help Us Make a Difference
Oklahoma needs high-quality investigative journalism. That is our mission at Oklahoma Watch. We produce stories that hold government and public officials accountable and that make transparent what some prefer to keep secret. We depend on financial support from readers like you to sustain our coverage. Will you help us make a difference?
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
