Management digs in deeper while still not explaining why off-duty reporters can’t attend and observe without participating. Will the next memo outline how much distance you have to keep from the crowd if you’re heading out for a carton of milk? And will the distance be measured in yards or meters?
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DK – an EXCELLENT question was raised on your original thread –
Since they are digging in further, any way to find out if this applies ONLY to liberal events?
DK – I see they did not warn reporters about Glenn Beck. So how did they ascertain Beck was ‘overtly political’?
BTW – does NPR have/observe a distinction between partisan and political? Because those tricky League of Women Voter events may become a problem.
@C.E.: Point taken, but NPR’s real mistake here is in not recognizing the difference between participation and mere attendance. Jeff Jarvis has a good commentary on the situation here. What I find especially weird about this is that it comes not from some stodgy, hopeless old media dinosaur, but from NPR, among the most forward-looking news organizations we have.
DK – to me, being in media is all about words, and precise use of words. That is the strangest thing about this. Political/Partisan; Attend/Participate; Objective/Uninvolved.
As you know, I don’t have a problem with journalist participation, as I don’t think it humanly possible to be utterly objective, and I prefer knowing where a reporter is coming from. But this NPR stance is unsustainable at best.