SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 2) by RedBear on Wednesday March 29 2017, @01:04AM
According to that article it is actually the UTC university officials, not WUTC news staff, that both ordered the reporter's termination and ordered the removal of the story. Obviously the lawmakers threatened to cut off funds to the university, and the weak-spined university officials thought it was a great idea to interfere with the functioning of WUTC in response to government blackmail threats, even though there was actually nothing about the story that should have qualified it for removal and suppression, and the journalist failing to shout "I'M A JOURNALIST FOR WUTC AND I'LL BE BROADCASTING ANY REMARKS YOU MAKE THAT I'M RECORDING WITH MY GIANT MICROPHONE THAT I'M POINTING RIGHT AT YOUR FACE RIGHT NOW," was not a fireable offense (according to the station's own editors). Talk about Streisand Effect.
People spend a lot of time screaming about government censorship when there is nothing of the sort actually going on. Well, this is one case where it would only be one very short hop to make this ACTUAL government censorship of the free press. It comes up just shy of actual censorship, which would require the legislators directly ordering the termination or arrest of the journalist in question, in clear violation of the 1st Amendment. But this sure as hell qualifies as "interfering" with press freedom and puts in question the independence and integrity of the WUTC station.
Anyone who finds the free press important should find this quite disturbing. Unless you're a Trumpite, in which case everything but Breitbart is "fake news" and there's nothing to see here, move along, citizen. Pravda!
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ