EDITORIAL: Henderson press access

If the media weren’t around to report Henderson’s hostility to the media, city employees still might face termination for talking to the media — and residents would have less information about the government they pay for.

Late Thursday, Henderson City Manager Jacob Snow wisely walked back the outrageous “media contact and response” policy put in place last year and exposed this month by the Review-Journal. It allowed the city to fire any employee who talked to journalists without authorization from the communications office.

But it was mostly about limiting the Review-Journal’s access to city buildings and personnel; a December “reminder” to top-level staff included photos of Review-Journal reporter Eric Hartley, the only journalist covering Henderson full-time, and a warning that he had been “contacting staff members directly,” much like a common resident might. The horror!

Mr. Snow attributed the policy’s creation to an assistant city attorney who had worked in the private sector. It’s not unusual for businesses to threaten to fire employees for talking to the press, Mr. Snow told Mr. Hartley, but such a policy is not “appropriate for a governmental entity that’s supposed to be open and transparent.”

“That’s something that shouldn’t have happened.”

It happened because the city’s detached, borderline-paranoid leadership has long been more concerned about its messaging than being welcoming. That’s why the policy was championed by the communications office, and that’s why it wasn’t shredded the day the Review-Journal first reported its existence.

When governments take deliberate steps to frustrate the press, they’re actually frustrating the public at large. Governments do the public’s business, and journalists report on the public’s business because governments can’t be trusted to disclose everything they do — especially their mistakes. This episode is further proof of that. When governments threaten to punish employees who talk to the press, the message is unmistakable: Don’t blow the whistle on our screw-ups, so that we can keep the public in the dark.

Mr. Snow said he failed to read the entire policy when he approved it in September, and that City Attorney Josh Reid didn’t review the policy created by his subordinate. The elected stewards of the City Council certainly weren’t paying attention. Good thing we found out about it. How many more dumb Henderson policies and decisions have been made without any kind of review by the people in charge?

It’s good that Henderson dumped its awful media policy. Now we can get back to work watching Henderson — for you.