Journalists are in the business of asking questions. So when someone–especially those in a public office or agency–won’t bother to answer, it ruffles our feathers.
It could be about something as simple as an elected official not bothering to return phone calls or emails, like Lompoc City Councilmembers Dirk Starbuck and Victor Vega did for this week’s cover story (see page 8). While it’s no skin off my beak if they want to be literally the only candidates for Lompoc City Council who didn’t speak to the Sun for the story, you have to wonder why.
Well, maybe they’re still upset about a cover story that ran last year by Staff Writer Spencer Cole (“Failure to communicate,” Sept. 14) about the budget gridlock at the time. Starbuck, Vega, and Councilmember Jim Mosby didn’t come out looking too good in that story, which included winks across the dias and calls to terminate the city manager.
But hey, that didn’t stop Mosby from getting back for the current story, even after ignoring requests for comment on several stories since “Failure to communicate.” He must really want to be mayor of Lompoc.
Politicians are under no obligation to speak with us, other than, you know, being accountable to their constituents, who we serve. But when a public agency stonewalls us, especially regarding public information, it’s just downright wrong.
Allan Hancock College just lost its public information officer, Andrew Masuda (farewell, Andrew!), and the college’s temp gave us the runaround for some very basic information on incoming police chief for the community college, Catherine Farley (see page 6). We finally got the chief’s resume but not till way past our deadline.
Look, I get it–staff changes, somebody’s out sick, meetings all morning, but Hancock’s PR department doesn’t have a fact sheet on a new college hire to send out before deadline?
When the fill-in guy was initially asked he said he wasn’t “comfortable” sharing the chief’s qualifications. Seriously? We’re asking for Farley’s work history, not her Social Security number!
This reeks of the PR bureaucracy that I complained about months ago (“Policy and PR,” April 19) regarding a story about Hancock’s sexual harassment policy (“Level of tolerance,” April 19) after allegations of abuse and retaliation. We got a similar runaround then to the point that the Sun filed a Public Records Act request and our editors eventually sat down with Hancock’s PR team (Andrew was there) to air out the situation.
And Hancock has even asked us to refer to PR when interviewing their students! You don’t own your students, Hancock, they’re private citizens attending a public school and can talk to whoever they want. The problem of stonewalling public information officers (or PIOs for short) isn’t unique to Hancock or the Central Coast, it’s an issue that has stymied quality journalism across the country.
The Poytner Institute recently reported on studies sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists that surveyed journalists across the U.S. who, guess what, have less access to government agencies because of, guess who, PIOs.
Doesn’t anyone wonder why public institutions don’t feel accountable to us, the public? Journalists will continue to hit walls pursuing stories, but we know how to dig under them. But what about those stuck behind the wall?
Well, we also protect the identities of whistleblowers, if they reach out to us.
The Canary’s beady eyes are narrowed. Blow the whistle to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 20-27, 2018.