As someone who has been both a reporter and an elected official I have found that the best way to have a relationship with the media is to be open, available and honest, regardless of whether it is good or bad news. In fact I think the media is often fairer with those folks who are, than those that aren't. Case in point...how the media often treated past City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes, who was generally unavailable to the media.
I'm bewildered that the Mayor and his chief of communications and the communications director could all make such a bonehead move with the media, especially since two of the three had been reporters themselves.
And clearly from the amount of backpadeling in today's paper by the Mayor in an article and a letter to the editor, indicates that this wasn't a well thought out decision.
Quite frankly reporters will report the story of the day and you can't ask them to sugar coat it by giving them some goody, goody news to print at the same time. Good public relations folks know that. You try to push the positive stories as stand alone articles highlighting the accomplishments of the police department. And this new city communications policy in no way makes that happen, any more than the previous policy. In fact it might cause reporters to not pick up positive stories because they figure it is an attempt by the Mayor's office to control the news.
If the Mayor is so concerned about controlling what the media gets, than why in a recent Strib article, when asked what he though about the incident in the Native American Community, did he say no comment and direct reporters to the police chief. That's hardly consistent with this new policy.
Secondly his comment in today's paper indicating that reporters should asked the police chief why he disagreed with the change came across as petulant. Yesterday's article indicated that the Mayor instituted this change to give people the reality... the good, the bad and the ugly.
Unfortunately I'm afriad this latest policy is an attempt to give only the good, and hide the bad and the ugly to the detriment of citizens. If the current administration is concerned about the bad and the ugly then they need to do something about those problems. What I currently see is an administration that one week is involved with mediation and the next week shoves it off on the chief. One week they want better relationships with the Native American community and the next week the
refuse to talk to the media and direct them to the Chief. Perhaps this
schizophrenic approach is part of the problem and probably equally as confusing to the police department.
If reporters can't talk to the rank and file about some of the policy stuff going on city wide eventually the public will lose out. Changes will be made that we aren't going to know about because the administration will try to control the flow of information to us. It's ironic that the open door policy is closing fast. Witness this, the mediation process and the recent council action on a five year budget plan with no public hearings.
The Mayor's public relations skills and his desire to tout the city's good points are appreciated by the populace, but this job is more than just a spin game. The Mayor needs to realize that this job involves taking the heat as well.
Lisa McDonald
East Harriet
From: "David Brauer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: [Mpls] Rybak orders police not to talk to media Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 21:16:47 -0600I'll have more to say about this later, but G.R. Anderson has a wonderful
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