Speak No Evil

[Carol Holst <kceh@airmail.net>]

Speak No Evil
Not part of HISD's spin machine? No interviews for you
BY RICHARD CONNELLY

Deron Neblett
Abbott and the HISD administration want employees talking to only news 
outlets they deem fit.  

 Unlike a lot of media, the Houston Press was never an enthusiastic 
cheerleader for the so-called Houston Miracle, the unending public 
relations barrage that landed former HISD superintendent Rod Paige his 
job as U.S. secretary of education.

And with the return of PR whiz Terry Abbott, the man behind the curtain 
of the "miracle" (see "Paige Boy Returns," July 24), it's clear what 
happens to media organizations who aren't part of the district's spin 
machine.

On August 25, Abbott announced an official policy that he would do his 
best to ensure that no HISD employee ever speaks with the Houston Press. 
Questions about any story, in any school, must be submitted in writing 
to him, he said, and he would respond in writing after checking with the 
principal, administrator or other employee the Press wanted to talk to.

"We just can't get any kind of fair shake out of the Houston Press," he 
said. (At first, Abbott's assistant said that the policy was in place 
because Abbott said the Press "got stories wrong," but in direct 
conversation Abbott made no claims about errors and instead talked of 
getting "a fair shake." He cited no specific stories.)

"It is going to be my recommendation to everyone else that works for the 
school district that they decline to be interviewed by the Houston 
Press," he said.

Individual principals of schools, according to HISD policy, are allowed 
"to be a spokesperson for that school," Abbott said, so they could 
ignore his advice. But in the paranoid bureaucracy of HISD, where 
teachers and administrators quickly get the message not to make waves, 
Abbott was likely right when he said he "suspect[s]" employees will 
decline interviews.

A slip of the lip indicates as much: "My request is going to be -- my 
recommendation is going to be that they refer the questions back to me," 
he said in an interview.

In response to a follow-up (written) question, Abbott wouldn't answer 
whether he thought HISD employees would be intimidated from talking to 
the Press by his request (oops -- his recommendation) that they do not.

"That question calls for me to reach a conclusion on a hypothetical 
situation," he wrote. "Of course, I won't do that."

In another follow-up (written) question, Abbott was asked why the 
Press -- or HISD, for that matter -- couldn't simply tape any interviews 
it does with HISD personnel, another way to ensure accuracy.

Abbott's (written) response sidestepped the question, saying: "Thanks. 
We'll stick with the written answers to your questions."

Press editor Margaret Downing said no other area school district had 
taken such steps. "From time to time, the Press does stories involving 
school districts in the Houston area. Sometimes we're complimentary, 
sometimes not. Never has this resulted in a shutdown of access," she 
said. "In fact, in most of the other districts, personnel in the public 
relations office are rarely quoted, preferring instead to direct 
reporters to the actual people doing the work.

"Taxpayers have a right to know what their teachers, administrators and 
elected officials are doing and thinking in any school system. They've 
lost that in HISD. Anything said there will be filtered, handled and 
reshaped by Terry Abbott. Maybe he'll make that quote he passes on just 
a bit better. Maybe he'll leave out that information that might be just 
a bit damaging to HISD. We won't ever know what exactly came from the 
source and what was Terry Abbottized," she said.

Abbott's policy also would effectively bar the Press from visiting any 
HISD campus.

"Exchanging e-mails is a very ineffective way of interviewing anyone, 
being both clumsy and time-consuming," Downing said. "In person, if 
someone doesn't answer a question or brings up something unexpected, you 
can immediately follow that up with another question. That's not 
possible with a follow-up e-mail question that isn't answered for hours 
or days."

Abbott did not get approval from the school board for his policy: 
"Generally, board members do not approve office operating procedures," 
he wrote.

Board members do -- at least in Houston -- tend to slavishly support the 
administration. Calls to board president Kevin Hoffman and first vice 
president Karla Cisneros were not returned. Neither were e-mail requests 
for interviews sent to board members through Abbott's press office.

"What is scary in a sort of sickly humorous way is that Terry Abbott has 
appointed himself grand pooh-bah for the Houston Independent School 
District. And he may get away with it because Superintendent Kaye 
Stripling and HISD trustees are apparently so terrified of bad publicity 
that they'd rather give him free rein to intimidate employees and speak 
for the entire district," Downing said. "The idea that HISD chooses to 
give out its information only to the media outlets who do what it wants 
is outrageous and unjustifiable."

Abbott writes that his policy is nothing new. "I began doing this toward 
the end of my first tenure here after…many hours spent trying to get the 
Houston Press to report fairly about the district," he wrote.

"I'm sorry, but that's not my recollection," Downing said. "The 
occasional exchange of e-mail for primarily statistical information is 
fine. But e-mail cannot replace the benefits of a face-to-face 
interview. That's how we do our jobs."

Abbott said his policy applies to "a few reporters at other 
organizations and then the Houston Press in general." In response to 
another written question, he wouldn't name the other reporters.

One of those, however, is KTRK's intrepid Wayne Dolcefino. He said 
Abbott "is full of half-truths, omissions and total BS…News directors 
and editors around town now quite honestly view Terry Abbott as a guy 
who you know will spew nonsense. Forget Terry Abbott personally, this is 
not what taxpayers have a public information officer for. You have one 
so we can get information quickly and easily without bothering every 
employee in the district, not to spin or fight with the press all day 
long."

KTRK's news director asked for a meeting with Superintendent Stripling 
to discuss the station's relationship with Abbott, Dolcefino said; he 
was told to go through Abbott. (Downing also asked Abbott for a meeting 
with the superintendent and has yet to hear a response.)

The New York Times is also apparently on Abbott's Shit List (or not on 
his Shiny Apple Polishers List, if you look at it the other way). A 
Times story August 28 on some of HISD's bogus PR claims noted that 
requests for interviews with Stripling and district principals were 
rejected, and that Abbott "refused to explain" discrepancies between 
some HISD claims and reality.

A statewide expert on school district public relations wouldn't comment 
directly on Abbott's policy but noted that it's not common. Kirk Lewis 
is president of the board of the Texas School Public Relations 
Association and spokesman for the Pasadena school district.

"Our district always tries to be open -- the schools don't belong to us, 
they belong to the taxpayers who pay for all this," he said.

Lewis said that in the 18 years he has worked at PISD, there may have 
been two reporters "who I felt might not have been objective, and I 
worked a little differently with them. But I talked with the reporter 
and editor first, and I never did it for a whole paper at once. You know 
you're going to take some lumps in coverage sometime, but you're not 
going to blackball someone because of it."

In case you're wondering what Abbott might consider a "fair shake" in 
coverage for HISD, you might check out the front page of the August 23 
Houston Chronicle. The biggest story on the page that day -- one that 
featured two photos, including one of happy students cheering wildly -- 
was about an HISD administrator and Yates High School alumnus who was 
returning to the school as principal. (New principal George August was 
going "to bring the school's academic freefall to a halt," a 
sub-headline said.)

That page-one layout also featured a bannered, highlighted quote from an 
expert, one who analyzed thusly: "We expect Mr. August will dramatically 
improve Yates."

The expert? None other than Terry Abbott. Now that's one helluva fair 
shake.