Thursday, July 26, 2007

Journal Gazette Covers City Council Lockout

There were some people in the blogosphere upset by the fact that the lockout received no coverage from the mainstream media. Well Ben Lanka of the JG covered the story today and there was a quote from the Public Access Counselor that was somewhat disturbing:
She said the fact the meeting was televised on public access television and held in a normal meeting room leads her to believe the meeting was held legally.

“It sounds to me they didn’t violate the spirit of the law, but I don’t know what a court would say,” she said.

Readers need to understand that the city council hearings are broadcast on CABLE public access - not PBS. So not only must you own a television you must also be a cable subscriber. Does the PAC really believe that the law can be twisted to imply that citizens must be cable subscribers to take part in democracy? I know the PAC needs time to research the issue but that would set a terrible precedent for open government activists...

5 comments:

Rachel said...

I think it might be worth noting that the PAC was just appointed by our Republican governor, who came to us from the administration that believes in warrantless wiretapping.

I'm one of those people who has been shut out of watching the proceedings. I don't have cable.

Jennifer Jeffrey said...

I know of 4 people who said they specifically couldn't watch it because of that, as well.

MichaelK said...

Even aside from the broadcast issue (I guess if we don't have cable we don't matter, huh?) my big problem is still the closed door with a guard on it.

Jeff Pruitt said...

WOWO is now reporting that Sandy Kennedy said that anyone was free to enter the council chambers anytime they wished.

Can you believe that!?!

I can't imagine that report is accurate...

LP Mike Sylvester said...

I cannot watch on Public Access since I use Dish Network...

Mike Sylvester