For those that haven't seen the Courant's latest addition to Courant.com,"Cityline", check out courant.com/cityline. As the Courant seems to continue downsizing its daily editions, Cityline allows Courant reporters to post articles and information that might not make it into the print edition.
Saturday's Cityline posted a story about Sarah Barr, Mayor Eddie Perez's Director of Misinformation or more aptly a disciple of the "Gospel of Perez".
For some reason, Sarah Barr has a problem with me. I can't figure out what this could be, especially since Sarah has at one time or another considered herself a journalist. Sarah consistently claims that the Perez Administration continues to be the most transparent administration in recent history at Hartford City Hall. Although, I guess transparency can only go so far when job one is to make sure only the good news gets out. When information is put in the public domain that goes against the Gospel of Perez, I can understand that Sarah might feel responsible for not protecting her boss, and at this point in her career another job loss might be hard to take. I can imagine that the Channel 3 termination was tough enough, never mind getting dumped by a Mayor facing prison. How bad can it possibly get ?
When I started my public access program called "We the People", I also began this blog to continue to get information out to the general public. Both public access programming and "bloggers" are considered,for all intents and purposes, media outlets. This has been determined by court decisions, and in many states now, bloggers are covered by media shield laws.In addition, I have also worked for at least three area television stations as a freelance videographer providing video of crime scenes, fires, accidents and the like. In fact, I had been nominated for an Emmy award for video that I had shot for Channel 3, WFSB. I am also a member of "IRE". the association of Investigative Reporters and Editors. (IRE is a great resource and their monthly newletters really give you great ideas on how to uncover corruption and obtain documents)Note to Sarah: the dues aren't bad and it might help to dust-off those job skills, their mentoring program is great and they can pair you with an actual media professional.
In June of 2008, I had requested to be added to Sarah Barr's media notification list. I figured that for someone that claimed to strive for transparency, this was no problem and she would enter me into her database. WRONG !!!!!
The first e-mail request I sent was answered with the reply "and what media outlet do you represent?". I replied that I had the public access program "We the People" which I was sure she was aware of, because I had been told it was an occasional topic of discussion in the Mayor's Office. None the less, I figured she might not venture out of the bunker at 550 Main Street often, what with having to explain search warrants served on the Mayor's Home, a Grand Jury investigation, failing schools, a budget deficit that today approaches or exceeds $36 million dollars, sky rocketing gun violence etc, etc, etc. I offered to provide her with a DVD of the program for her viewing pleasure, but I never heard back. Since I can't force her to place me on the media list, I did the next best thing. I requested her media list through an FOI request, and since the list is public information , she is obligated to provide it. Again no response, and the FOI complaint was filed with the State of Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission.In September the case was docketed and Disciple Barr was sent her notice that a complaint had been filed. Not surprisingly. that same day, the former Channel 3 employee (until her termination) sent me a list of names via e-mail, some of them I recognized as media people. I guess she thought that would make the complaint go away. Once again Sarah, wrong. The hearing will be held later this month and I look forward to hearing Sarah explain her position, under oath. Apparently a City Hall employee overheard a conversation between Barr and another employee that same day, and when Barr was asked why she just didn't provide the list in the first place, she replied "I just don't like him". The walls have ears in the Mayor's Office, and from what I understand the flower pots and lamps may also, with Federal Agents at the other end.
So anyway, it came as no surprise when Jeff Cohen from the Courant asked me yesterday what I thought of Sarah's press release about Monday's State of the City speech being released to only "credentialed media". I wasn't surprised and actually find it comical. Even though I'm not a "paid" journalist, I try to stick to the facts. As you can see from my postings, I have documents, e-mails and whatever I can find when I address an issue and try to present facts in a responsible manner. And since Monday's speech from Eddie to his Kingdom will most likely border on a fantasy tale, I really don't need an advance copy. The other problem with Sarah's press releases is that my inbox usually gets jammed with people forwarding them to me after she sends them out. It usually is ten or fifteen minutes after she sends them, so I am getting them delayed.I didn't go to school in Hartford, so I'm a fast reader, and they are typically pretty light on the content side, so I can live with that.
Again, check out http://courant.com/cityline when you have a chance, we are trying to make Jeff Cohen a legitimate blogger
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