Journalists need a free hand

This is unconscionable: FIU has denied press credentials to a Miami Herald reporter for the school’s opening football game, offering no explanation.

This might seem a minor issue — an insignificant sports item about a small football program — but it’s not. It represents what has become a standard effort by those in power to impose the ethos of public relations on coverage. The goal is to eliminate critical or what they believe is invasive coverage with positive press.

In response to the FIU decision to refuse credentials to the Herald beat reporter, the paper is opting not to cover the opening game. It’s a difficult choice — opting to avoid covering an event that readers may be interested in — but it is the only leverage the Herald has.

“It’s unprecedented for any local team to refuse to credential our beat reporter without reason,” Miami Herald Executive Editor Aminda Marqués Gonzalez said of the four pro and two college teams the Herald covers on a regular basis. “The team does not get to choose who covers the program.”

And that’s the key point. Teams, businesses, politicians — no one — should be given opportunity to select the entities that will cover them. That puts the power in the hands of the people who most need watching and potentially guts our ability as journalists to function as watchdogs. Journalists need a free hand to report, which they won’t have if they have to worry that negative coverage might cost them access or credentials.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet