Rybak Flack: MPLS Not Communist Russia
It's so satisfyingly rare when front page news in the Strib is universally derided, but that's what happened today with the story about Mayor R. T. Rybak's memo to Chief Robert Olson that all Minneapolis Police Officers must receive approval from the city before they can talk to reporters.
The Strib quoted Lt. Mike Sauro saying the policy was "censorship." Tim Dolan, commander of the city's Fourth Precinct, similarly fretted. Former police spokeswoman Penny Parrish cited a case of blaming the messenger for recent "bad news" about the department, and concluded the policy wouldn't work. Mark Anfinson, attorney for the Minnesota Newspaper Association, said such a policy could lead to "propaganda."
So I called Laura Sether, Rybak's press secretary, and asked her how the city planned to make such bureaucratic tap-dancing feasible.
"The idea was not for every conversation to be approved," Sether claimed. "If there's a shooting or a melee, cops will talk to the press. This is not a clamping-down, communist-Russia sort of thing."
Sether said the "coordinating of communications" has been floating around city hall for a year, and that Gail Plewacki, herself a former cop and television reporter, had been hired specifically to oversee such streamlining. Under the newstructure, the communications directors for the Minneapolis Community and Development Agency--which is more or less morphing into the new Community Planning and Economic Development department--Fire Department and Police Department will now have to report to Plewacki.
Apparently this last bit rankled police spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington, who resigned after Rybak's directive went out.
Ah, yes, Cyndi Barrington (nee Montgomery). Her departure causes me just a little bit of glee, she whom I've come to believe legally added "Did Not Return Phone Calls" to the end of her name. Just this week I was thinking of posting an open letter to her, and to Chief Olson, right here in this very blog to beg them to return a lousy call from City Pages (well, okay, me) once in a while.
They are public servants, after all, and I am a member of the free press, and even though CP and the MPD ain't really on the best of terms, the least Barrington and Olson could do was try to fulfill their public duties. Until then, I would have reasoned, I'm going to have to keep writing stories that are riddled with accusations against Olson, with no chance for him to plead his case.
Then I wondered if Olson simply wasn't getting the messages, and maybe it wasn't even his fault he looked like he had something to hide. Am I being naive on every level here? Probably. But perhaps the rumors--that Barrington was often overwhelmed and sometimes disorganized or just plain disinterested in her job--were true.
(I often skipped right over Barrington and called the cops themselves, as any self-respecting reporter would do. Obviously I wasn't the only one. This was surprisingly successful sometimes, and I've got one or two good cops who don't necessarily feel the need to cling to the Blue Wall of Silence and its underpinnings. We'll see if that changes.)
At any rate, those days are gone with the Cynd, and now I look forward to having unfettered, constant access to the Chief. Just contact the city, and I'm good, right?
Well, no. See, I don't suppose things will be any better with the new "coordinated" communications, despite Sether's insistence that "this is what they do in just about every other major city we could think of," and, "St. Paul police have been doing this for 30 years."
Well, yeah, that's the thing. The St. Paul police spokesman, Michael Jordan, is probably about the best guy to have on the job. He's smart. He's almost pleasant. He appears to be interested in trying to be candid. And two years ago, he almost put me in touch with some St. Paul cops for a roundtable Paul Demko and I wanted to do. I faxed. I called. I followed-up. I pleaded. This went on for, oh, about nine months. And then, guess what? It didn't pan out. Never talked to any cops. Spokesman 1, lowly alt-weekly reporters 0.
There are bigger implications here than just dicking with a whiny little journalist. The Minneapolis Police Department has had a PR problem for 20 years. Increasingly, there is a lack of trust from the public, and, frankly, a lack of good cops on display. Police work is tough, and very rarely are we, as journalists or citizens, allowed to see this. Instead, we see the missteps and the brutality cases and the like.
This is too bad. But more to the point: Like it or not, these folks are here to serve and protect the public, not conduct their work in private. It could be argued that by creating and maintaining a distance from the public, whether by thumping suspects or not speaking to the media, police officers are failing to do what they are paid to do. Even if they're told differently by the mayor.
And these are rightfully paranoid times. Post-9/11, we've seen an erosion of civil liberties, but also the creation of what might as well be called a nationwide police state. Rybak's order only fuels this feeling.
Surely the mayor, himself a former reporter, understands this. Surely tonight he's thinking he made a bad political move. If he isn't, he should. Rybak may indeed be trying to cut fat and save the city money, but his role in all of this just looks dictatorial.
Sether told me the intention was to increase communication, not decrease it. And she told me to let her know if I had any problems with the new system--like, if a spokesperson didn't return phone calls--and she'd take care of it. Oh, and Barrington's job is open and has been officially posted. Any takers?
Finer Point: Pawlenty Plays Tragedy Card
Governor HockeyPuck's State of the State address this afternoon was so full of banal inspiration, pious posturing and bizarre pop-culture references, I very truly, very nearly puked. Oh, and "Our state is awesome!" is your opening remark? Like, sweet, dude.
Nevertheless, after counting his use of the word "courage" for what was at least the fifth time, I decided our good-natured guv could probably fare pretty well in a Dan Rather impersonation contest.
But the real reason I bring any of this up is because it went sort of unnoticed that the speech came two days later than it was supposed to. HockeyPuck reportedly moved it from Tuesday to Thursday out of respect to those who died in the Columbia incident.
How compassionate! How conservative! But couldn't one speculate that the real reason for the delay was to see if the U.S. ran off to war after Colin Powell's sideshow to the U.N. security council on Wednesday? That would have made for one hell of a speech.
Or maybe Governor HockeyPuck wanted more time to rattle the saber at the legislature on budget cuts, all the while moving the address closer to Friday, when he most certainly will start "unallotting" funding to programs and agencies all around the state. Oh, but that would be just too, too cynical from such a nice guy.
Shout-Out: Me, Me, Me!
The previous point was essentially made on Confederacy of Dunces, a new show on Radio K I appeared on last night. The University of Minnesota station is about to get a new overnight FM frequency, and Joel Stitzel has cooked up a decidedly not-right-leaning political roundtable concept. For now, you can listen every Wednesday night at 10 online.
Also: On Monday I promised to expound a bit on some Minneapolis City Council actions (or inactions) from last week. I said I'd dish 'em out piecemeal this week. I lied. I've been writing all week, but wrangling over what bits to put here and what bits to save for next week's print edition of City Pages. So, I'm a big fat liar, but it will all get out one way or another.
5:57:36 PM 
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