Fwd: [arn2-strategy] Please help Substance stop AFT convention censorship

[Susan Harman <susanharman@igc.org>]

Substance is a teachers newspaper out of Chicago. Please write a letter 
to the AFT (even if you belong to NEA), and please subscribe!
Susan

Begin forwarded message:

> From: csubstance@aol.com
> Date: Fri Jun 27, 2008  8:44:04 AM US/Eastern
> To: pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu, arn-l@interversity.org, 
> ndsgroup@yahoogroups.com, ARN-state@yahoogroups.com, 
> arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com
> Cc: ca-resisters@interversity.org
> Subject: [arn2-strategy] Please help Substance stop AFT convention 
> censorship
> Reply-To: arn2-strategy@yahoogroups.com
>
> 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
>
> www.substancenews.net <BR><BR><BR>**************<BR>Gas prices getting 
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