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halleybird


Hermes

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update on FEMA ban
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/09/10/katrina.media/index.html







U.S. won't ban media from New Orleans searches
CNN filed suit for right to cover search for bodies of Katrina victims



HOUSTON, Texas (CNN) -- Rather than fight a lawsuit by CNN, the federal government abandoned its effort Saturday to prevent the media from reporting on the recovery of the dead in New Orleans.


Joint Task Force Katrina "has no plans to bar, impede or prevent news media from their news gathering and reporting activities in connection with the deceased Hurricane Katrina victim recovery efforts," said Col. Christian E. deGraff, representing the task force.


U.S. District Court Judge Keith Ellison issued a temporary restraining order Friday against a "zero access" policy announced earlier in the day by Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who is overseeing the federal relief effort in the city, and Terry Ebbert, the city's homeland security director.


In explaining the ban, Ebbert said, "we don't think that's proper" to let members of the media view the bodies.


Army Lt. Col. Richard Steele, a member of Honore's staff, told CNN Saturday night that Honore was partly misunderstood. Steele said Honore meant that no media would be allowed to be imbedded with teams recovering bodies. However, recovery groups would not prevent reporters from doing their jobs, he added.


"He did not say we're going to ban anybody. We're not going to restrict them from any public areas whatsoever," Steele said. "We don't have any legal recourse to do any kind of law enforcement or anything like that in our role. So the only thing we do is we can control who goes with us; on our aircraft and on our trucks and in our boats, if that applies."


The judge was to consider granting a permanent injunction Saturday when the government announced its decision not to enforce the "zero access" policy.(Court transcript)


Reacting to the decision, CNN News Group President Jim Walton said, "We are pleased by the decision. The free flow of information is vital for a free society."


In an e-mail to CNN staff on Friday, Walton said the network filed the the lawsuit to "prohibit any agency from restricting its ability to fully and fairly cover" the hurricane victim recovery process.


"As seen most recently from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, from tsunami-ravaged South Asia and from Hurricane Katrina's landfall along the Gulf," Walton wrote, "CNN has shown that it is capable of balancing vigorous reporting with respect for private concerns."


CNN filed suit against Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, arguing that the officials who announced the decision were acting on FEMA's behalf.


"For an agency to unilaterally ban all coverage of a major component of its governmental function, that is, recovery of the deceased victims of the tragedy, is unprecedented," CNN argued in its legal brief. "Instead, the agency has made a subjective, content-based determination that publicizing the operation would be 'without dignity.'"


CNN's brief argued, "It is not the place of government to replace its own internal judgment for that of a free and independent media."


Because of controversy about how FEMA and other agencies handled the disaster response, CNN lawyers argued, "it is even more vitally important for the public, Congress and the administration to have an independent view of the conduct of this important phase of the operation."






 

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blubirde


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Hallelujah!! Makes me proud to be a member of the legal system. (For once.)



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halleybird


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ha -- blubirde, you probably get more negative comments about your profession than I do about mine. I always say that only lawyers and politicians have a more negative reputation than journalists.


Anyway, I am of the opinion that good journalists should take freedoms (like these) to be even more conscientious about their ethics.



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blubirde


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halleybird wrote:

ha -- blubirde, you probably get more negative comments about your profession than I do about mine. I always say that only lawyers and politicians have a more negative reputation than journalists. Anyway, I am of the opinion that good journalists should take freedoms (like these) to be even more conscientious about their ethics.

Unfortunately most lawyers deserve their reputation. Hate to say it but it's true. However I believe lawyers get such bad reputations because people come to them at their most vindictive and petty so they not only resent their own behavior but they're paying someone money to act on those feelings.


I have a question for you halleybird. Do you consider anchors journalists? I guess technically they are but I usually think more along the lines of print journalism (a reporter and writer) when I think of a journalist. Do you find that's a normal interpretation by laypeople or am I in the minority? The reason I ask is that I have mad respect for journalists but not so much for mainstream media. They've done a surprisingly GOOD job covering Katrina but generally speaking I try to avoid CNN/FOX/etc. (except Countdown on MSNBC) because I don't feel like I get a real view of the facts from those networks. Of course that's just my opinion but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the subject.



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halleybird


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blubirde wrote:

Do you consider anchors journalists? I guess technically they are but I usually think more along the lines of print journalism (a reporter and writer) when I think of a journalist. Do you find that's a normal interpretation by laypeople or am I in the minority? The reason I ask is that I have mad respect for journalists but not so much for mainstream media. They've done a surprisingly GOOD job covering Katrina but generally speaking I try to avoid CNN/FOX/etc. (except Countdown on MSNBC) because I don't feel like I get a real view of the facts from those networks. Of course that's just my opinion but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the subject.

no, I don't -- unless it's someone who had a respectable history of reporting before becoming an anchor (like P. Jennings the second time around). I find that most people lump "the media" and "journalists" in one big pile that includes everything -- the NYT & Washington Post, Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, Access Hollywood, The Enquirer, CNN, their local news, even stuff like Playboy.  I want to scream that Pat O'Brien is not a journalist! Neither is the weatherman here who was discovered working at The Gap and reads cue cards for a living! Nor were the paparrazzi who chased Princess Diana. It's upsetting, because lumping these individuals together is what causes most challenges to press freedom. If you think about it, real, trained, serious journalists aren't usually doing the awful things the public is always blaming on "the media." 


I actually dislike most TV journalists the most, because they're the most recognizable to people on the daily basis. My local anchors like to read the news and then say, "You know, I think that..." I want to say, "Nobody cares about your opinion! Give us the damn news!" LOL



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