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In a follow-up to the recent story here about the Tennessee Bill to Require Free Speech on Campus an NPR reporter has been fired in response to an unflattering story due to pressure by legislators on the University of Tennessee.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fired a reporter this week at WUTC, the National Public Radio affiliate, after local lawmakers complained about how she reported on a state transgender bathroom bill.
Jacqui Helbert, 32, reported and produced the story for WUTC, which followed a group of Cleveland High School students as they traveled to the state capital March 7 to meet with Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, and Rep. Kevin Brooks, R-Cleveland, about the legislation.
The story aired on WUTC March 9 and 13, and was posted on the station's website. After it was posted, the lawmakers said Helbert failed to properly identify herself as a reporter during the meetings.
Helbert maintains she acted within journalistic ethics as she reported the story, and she never concealed her intentions or bulky radio equipment. She did not verbally identify herself as a journalist.
"It was glaringly obvious who I was," Helbert said, adding that her NPR press pass hung around her neck while at the capitol.
Helbert said she was wearing headphones and pointing a 22-inch large fuzzy microphone at the lawmakers as they spoke during the meeting.
Archive of the censored story is here.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by art guerrilla on Tuesday March 28 2017, @11:40PM (1 child)
no, in effect, everyone *is* a 'journalist', in that we ALL have the right and power to observe (and report) on public affairs/events; those rights and protections DO NOT simply and only adhere to professional media whores (as much as Empire would like to make that so)...
*HOWEVER*, as individuals, we obviously do not have the time/resources to observe ALL the public meetings, legislative sessions, regulatory commissions, ambulance chasing, etc; so we have professional journalists as our proxies...
as far as i am concerned, journalists are a SUBSET of regular citizens, NOT a 'superset'...
we ALL have those rights, but as a practical matter, they are mostly invested in those who do the actual reporting FOR US...
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:32PM
Good points. Accountability would be our representatives knowing they were being constantly recorded (and the recordings weren't going to be "accidentally misplaced" :P) and that wasn't going to change. Maybe, wonder of wonders, we'd see a bit of behavioral change.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"