Re: Please help Substance stop AFT convention censorship

[aburke5054@aol.com]

Every few months or so you conduct your own campaign of censorship 
against me by coming on the list and urging people not to respond to my 
notes or even read them.  Worse than that, you once threatened to get a 
mob to beat me up because you don't like my stance on NCLB.  Big brave 
defender of freedom of speech that you are, how could anyone believe 
that you are not really a journalist?

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: Csubstance@aol.com
To: pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu; arn-l@interversity.org; 
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Cc: ca-resisters@interversity.org
Sent: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 5:44 am
Subject: [arn-l] Please help Substance stop AFT convention censorship

6/27/08

Hello ARNers:

I just spend several hours writing what follows, and I hope you can 
share
this as widely as possible among our friends who believe in freedom of 
the
press.

As you know, the National Education Association (NEA) begins its 
convention
Tuesday in Washington, D.C. That will be followed by the American 
Federation of
Teachers (AFT) convening in Chicago July 11.

Yesterday, AFT's Public Affairs Office formally denied my request for 
press
credentials for myself and other Substance reporters to cover the AFT
convention. The ironies of the situation this year are outlined in 
brief below.
I hope
you will share what I've written below as necessary, and if you are 
moved to
contact AFT in protest, that you will share your words with us here at
Substance.

AFT will be issuing press credentials to many people, including
representatives of some dubious regimes around the world and 
individuals funded
by the
Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation. AFT's Public Affairs Office has 
already
informed other Chicago news organizations, some smaller than Substance, 
that
their
reporters will be issued credentials to cover the convention.

Thanks. What I have below should help explain the situation in context.

George N. Schmidt, Editor, Substance

June 27, 2008

Colleagues and friends:

Yesterday, Substance received the following e-mail:

"AFT will not be able to give your organization press credentials. We 
only
provide credentials to legitimate news organizations."

The e-mail was send by Janet Bass (jbass@aft.org), who is part of the 
staff
of what is called the "Public Affairs Office" of the American 
Federation of
Teachers in Washington, D.C. Ms. Bass's e-mail was in response to my 
repeated
requests to establish press credentials for Substance staff for the 
upcoming
convention of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in Chicago.

As you know, the national convention of the American Federation of 
Teachers
is scheduled to begin in Chicago on July 11, with pre-convention 
activities
taking place beginning July 9.

As editor of Substance, I called AFT at least three times during the 
past
week, requesting the procedures for getting press credentials for those 
members
of our staff who would be covering the convention as reporters, 
videographers,
bloggers, and photographers (we intend to utilize all four media for 
this
event and have prepared a special section of the Substance Website for 
daily
coverage of both the National Education Association (NEA) convention 
(which
begins
in Washington, D.C. July 1) and the AFT convention here in Chicago 
(beginning
July 11).

Traditionally, we inform organizations we will be covering in advance 
so that
their press people can prepare credentials and do any other necessary 
review
prior to the beginning of the news event. During the news event, we are 
all
too busy to revert to any bureaucratic necessities.

Ironically, the AFT is invoking a power (to determine what constitutes 
a
"legitimate news organization") which even President George W. Bush and 
the
White
House Press Office would not invoke. As many of you know, in January 
2008
(this past January), we received advanced notice that President Bush 
would be in

Chicago on January 7 to mark the anniversary of No Child Left Behind.

Although we generally don't cover national news events, if they take 
place in
Chicago we do. Several times during the past ten years, Substance has 
covered
figures from the U.S. Department of Education (including the now famous
former Deputy Education Secretary Susan Neuman and the current U.S. 
Secretary of

Education Margaret Spellings) during media events which are held in 
Chicago. We
then routinely publish reports and analysis of these events. Even so 
finicky a
news manager as Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has rarely tried to bar 
us
from news events, and our staff regularly go through the procedures 
established
by the Chicago Police Department to acquire Chicago Police press 
credentials.

Although it took three days, the White House Press Office eventually 
approved
three of our reporters (myself; Jackson Potter; and Joe Guzman) for 
coverage
of President Bush's visit to Chicago on January 7. What that meant was 
that we
had general access to several of the events of the day, although we 
(like all
of the TV stations and most other reporters) were barred from Bush's
seven-minute speech at Greeley Elementary School.

President Bush's No Child Left Behind anniversary speech was only 
covered by
the "Press Pool". This consists of two layers and is explained in our
Substance coverage (see our Home Page at www.substancenews.net) if you 
are
interested
in this interesting detail of free press in the USA.

Interestingly, because of the terms under which "pool coverage" of the
President's visit are concerned, we were provided with all of the 
photos and
reports
of the two Tribune people who were allowed into the main pool at 
Greeley,
Stephanie Banchero and a photographer. Both of these, as well as the 
White House

transcript of Bush's precise words, were published by Substance as news 
both
in our print edition and on the Web.

During the course of establishing our right to cover the President's 
Chicago
visit, we had to comply with a number of reasonable security concerns. 
The
three of us who covered President Bush had to provide the White House 
with our
personal information (including Social Security number) and submit to 
several
security checks. At O'Hare Airport (in a very secure part of the 
airport) we and

our cars were searched twice by Secret Service before we were driven 
out to
the tarmac by security (along with everyone else from the local press 
who had
been vetted) to cover the landing of Air Force One. You can see our 
photographs
from that part of the event at www.substancenews.net.

From O'Hare, we sped into Chicago, where we joined most of the press 
corps
outside a very secure perimeter around Horace Greeley Elementary 
School, while
President Bush, Mayor Daley, and Congressman Emmanuel were part of the 
NCLB
anniversary inside. That part of our coverage resulted in the front 
page
photograph of the mounted police cordoning off Greeley from the public 
(and, as
I
said, "non pool" press). Our ability to report on what took place 
inside Greeley

existed because under the terms of the "Pool" coverage approach, other 
news
organizations are entitled to news reports and photographs from the 
events which

are restricted to "Pool." The Chicago Tribune followed these 
professional
rules precisely, and both the news reports and photographs from inside 
Greeley
were made available to us (you can read them in Substance, February 
2008).

From Greeley, Joe, Jackson and I sped downtown to the Union League 
Club,
where Mayor Daley and President Bush were scheduled to meet with the 
Olympic
2016
committee before President Bush gave a speech on the economy (still one 
for
the books, in retrospect) to a select audience of wealthy Union League 
Club
members and family. At that event, we were again screened and admitted 
only
after
security nodded. Our Chicago Police Press Credentials were necessary to 
get
through the police lines to get to the Union League Club (there were 
protesters
outside at Dearborn and Jackson, some of whom were later arrested). 
Inside, we
were screened again. But since we had already taken all the steps 
necessary
to cover the event, Jackson, Joe and I were led upstairs where we 
joined the
rest of the media awaiting (for more than an hour) the President of the 
United
States.

I could give 50 or 100 other examples of our experiences covering the 
news in
Chicago and elsewhere during the past ten years, but have shared that 
one
from January of this year because it goes to the fundamental First 
Amendment
nature of this business. Nobody in the USA -- including the President 
of the
United States -- has the power to say who is "legitimate news" media or
organizations. As you can see by reviewing our coverage of the January 
news from
the most
powerful man (and office)  on earth, by maintaining our professionalism 
and
providing the White House with reasonable information, we established 
our right
to cover one of the most important education news events to take place 
in
Chicago in the past year.

Viewed from the perspective of the news coverage Substance has provided 
on
education stories during the past 12 months, this current disagreement 
with the
American Federation of Teachers Public Affairs Office is something of a
tempest in a teapot.

However, we have to ask all of our friends to contact that AFT and 
demand
that the AFT Public Affairs Office immediately stop its attempt to 
censor
Substance's coverage of the AFT national convention this summer.

You can contact Janet Bass by e-mail at AFT (jbass@aft.org).

I would also ask that people who have the time write (snail mail) to 
AFT
President Ed McElroy demanding (or requesting if you think that's the 
best way
to
do it) that AFT stop trying to censor Substance's coverage.

Ed McElroy
President, American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
555 New Jersey Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

I'm sorry that you and the staff of Substance have to waste time on 
this
rather silly exercise in the protection of our First Amendment rights, 
but I
have
to ask that you do so. Neither the President of the United States of 
America
nor a couple of self important union bureaucrats has the right to 
declare who
or what constitutes "legitimate news organizations." To have allowed 
George W.
Bush to restrict our coverage of his No Child Left Behind visit to 
Chicago in
January 2008 would have been to surrender an important part of our 
precious
rights. To allow Ed McElroy, Janet Bass, or any other union bureaucrat 
to
restrict our coverage of the 2008 convention of the American Federation 
of
Teachers
in July 2008 would also do violence to the freedoms and rights we all 
hold
dear.

I'll close with some words I memorized years ago and from time to time
repeat. Along with a few other part of our shared history (two by 
Abraham
Lincoln --
the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural), they rings as 
powerfully
today as they did when they first became law more than 200 years ago:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging freedom of speech, 
or of the

press, or the right of the people, peaceably to assemble, to petition 
the
government for a redress of grievances." (First Amendment, from 
memory...).

Thank you for your help in this matter,

Solidarity Forever,

George N. Schmidt
Editor, Substance

Substance
5132 W. Berteau
Chicago, IL 60641
773-725-7502

Csubstance@aol.com

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