Editorial

State should butt out of the press’s business

Posted

Given Albany’s vaunted position as the public corruption capital of America, you’d think the panel created in 2011 to oversee ethics and lobbying in New York’s executive branch and the Legislature would have more than enough work to keep it busy. But the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, is proposing a rule that would require public relations companies to register with the government if they contact newspaper editors or other media about issues of public concern.

How can this be? Among myriad other reasons why this is a bad idea, doesn’t this violate the First Amendment prohibition: “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . .”? In the post-Citizens United era when money is considered speech, surely speech is still considered speech.

PR firms represent people and businesses that want to get their message across. When they try to persuade lawmakers to adopt a position that will benefit their clients, they are considered lobbyists, and must register with the state and reveal their expenditures, including campaign contributions.

Requiring PR reps to report contact with government officials is one thing — a good idea, actually — but to require that they tell the government about discussions they have with the media is a violation of the constitutional protections of the press and a chilling interference with its ability to inform the public and develop editorial positions. Meddling in the relationships between the press and its sources, including PR practitioners, is a violation of the First Amendment and must be stopped.

We talk to all sorts of sources when reporting a story, and we don’t need the government trying to find out who’s whispering in our ears. This can only have a chilling effect on sources who want to tell us things that Albany pols might not want us to hear. We are more than capable of making our own decisions on whom to gather information from and what weight to give different sources when forming editorial opinions, without government oversight.

We’d like to remind our representatives in Albany that long before JCOPE, the press was the original government watchdog. It still is.

The governor is said to have “serious questions” about the ethics commission’s recommendation. It’s nonetheless troubling that it would even consider such a move.

Call or write your Assembly member, senator or the governor’s office and let them know you would like to continue to have a press free of government interference in your state. Tell JCOPE not to do this. Its address is 540 Broadway, Albany, N.Y. 12207, and its number is (518) 408-3976.