(Minnesota Historical Society)

It’s a new era for media, as a Feb. 9 White House press conference underscored: President Barack Obama called on reporter Sam Stein, from the online-only Huffington Post, a historic first. But the news appears to be a bit slow getting to Minnesota. Rules governing the state House of Representatives still exclude online media outlets from getting access to the House floor.

But at noon today, that policy was scheduled to get a hearing, as online journalists will testify before the Minnesota House rules committee to lobby for a change of policy.

When this topic last came up in the House on Feb. 12, Rep. Tony Sertich, DFL-Chisholm, expressed his misgivings about amending House rules to grant such access.

“We don’t have a fully defined policy of what online media is,” said the House majority leader. “If it’s somebody who designs their own Web site and comes down to the Capitol,  … we could be deluged with www.anybody.com walking through the door saying, ‘I’m the online media, let me have floor access.’ You think the House chamber is a ruckus … now, wait till all the bloggers get here and show up en masse.”

But one such “blogger” — who prefers to refer to his site Checks & Balances as an “e-zine” — thinks Sertich is missing the point.

“He’s got a fundamental flaw in his understanding of the Bill of Rights,” said Shawn Towle. “It’s not for government to decide what is media … [or] to in any way, shape or form try to limit, box in or impede anybody that wants to have the right to scrutinize, analyze and comment upon the activities of elected officials. They do have the ability to limit who has access to the floor of their body, … but they should have a universal rule about the treatment of all press, whether it’s print, broadcast or online. I’m fighting for equal treatment.”

Towle was to testify at today’s hearing, and today he filed with the sergeant-at-arms office to receive House press credentials, as did the Minnesota Independent’s Paul Demko and Andy Driscoll of KFAI’s “Truth to Tell.”

In an e-mail Monday night, Driscoll said that TruthToTell correspondent Marty Owings, an online radio host and blogger, was “yanked out of a public committee hearing today as he tried to monitor and record the public proceedings therein.”

The notion that the media platform should determine who gets to be on the House floor is riddled with problems. For example, will access change for Mary Lahammer when her intent is to blog for Twin Cities Public Television instead of report broadcast news? How about when Pioneer Press reporter Rachel Stassen-Berger covers the Statehouse for a Political Animal blog post instead of the print paper? And is it “radio” when MPR streams news online instead of over the airwaves?

And, as Towle asked, “If the Strib or PiPress moves to a strict online application, are you going to reject their press credentials?”

“I make my profession over analyzing, commenting on and reporting on political events in the state of Minnesota and have done so for 14 years,” said Towle, who’s e-zine is likely the first of its kind in Minnesota.

“What is it that people are intent to hide? If they haven’t figured out that they’re under close scrutiny – microscopic scrutiny – ever since they were elected, they’re a little naïve.”

Update: Online media access to state House falls prey to ‘procedural gimmicks’

10. Friends of Todd

When Sen. Norm Coleman and Todd (but not Sarah) Palin rallied in Duluth in October, an ardent supporter carried this curious sign, captured on film by Paul Demko.

9. Meter remade

A hacked parking meter, spotted by Steve Perry during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

8. Spraygun

RNC police breaking out high-powered pepper spray aerosol cans, photographed by Jeff Severns Guntzel.

7. Anti-RNC Everyman

Vermin Supreme, the most ubiquitous RNC protester, photographed by Molly Priesmeyer.

6. Why we vote?

A discarded newspaper, photographed by Paul Schmelzer outside a north Minneapolis polling place on Election Day, may offer a glimpse at voter motivations in 2008.

5. With Rage on-stage

An eerily lit shot of crowds at the September Rage Against the Machine concert, by Tony Nelson.

4. RNC onlookers

A pair of protesters watch an RNC demonstration go by, by Mike Dvorak.

3. Ready

A phalanx of riot police at the Republican National Convention, by Tim Roman.

2. Franken foregrounded

Senatorial candidate Al Franken speaks at an Oct. 21 rally at the University of Minnesota as a well-known supporter looks on. Photo by Andy Birkey.

1. Keith Smith (before photo)

Our top photo of the year, shot by Paul Demko, shows 17-year-old protester Keith Smith just hours before he was reportedly beaten by police at the Republican National Convention.

To see more Minnesota Independent photos, visit our Flickr site.

More of MnIndy’s Best:

Ten most popular stories of 2008

Top videos of 2008

Top RNC tweets

Watch or listen to it. (Fastforward to 38:35)

A forum held by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) in Minneapolis this week centered on the relationship between law enforcement and the media at the Republican National Convention (RNC) and indicated the extent to which journalism is evolving.

The event was organized in response to the predicament that numerous journos found themselves in while they covered the convention: By the Minnesota Independent’s count, nearly 50 journalists were arrested or detained by police at the RNC, including MnIndy’s Paul Demko, while more than 800 people were taken into custody.

St. Paul city officials announced last week that the city wouldn’t prosecute journalists facing “unlawful assembly” charges, but many still want to know why they ended up in plastic handcuffs in the first place, or what they could’ve done to prevent it. A couple reviews of RNC security efforts are being done in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but city officials say that police performance isn’t the focus.

The Uptake has video of the discussion here.

Not a witch hunt

Al Tompkins, a media expert who arrived from the Florida-based Poynter Institute, which trains journalists, moderated the talk, saying it would be a productive dialogue between representatives of the media and law enforcement and not a witch hunt. Still, emotions ran high. On hand to answer questions from Tompkins and attendees were St. Paul Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland, KARE-11 photojournalist Jonathan Malat, St. Paul Assistant Police Chief Matt Bostrom and Pioneer Press reporter Mara Gottfried.

It started with a recap of the RNC’s events, featuring protest footage from Malat. Later, Malat made the point that he was herded onto the Marion Street bridge while trying to obey police officers’ dispersal order on the last night of the protests.

Assistant Police Chief Bostrom said protesters and journos had plenty of time to leave the scene. “If someone disobeys a lawful order, they shall be arrested,” he said, adding that it’s up to the individual officer’s discretion. He conceded that there may have been a gap in their planning because he and other law enforcement agencies didn’t anticipate the sheer number of people claiming to be media. In his 20-plus years of police work, he says he’s never encountered so many journalists involved in an hourslong criminal activity, as he put it. “What do you want us to do?” he asked the crowd.

Deputy Mayor Mulholland defended the police response to the RNC protests. Mayor Chris Coleman “believes that police did what they needed to do in the name of public safety.” When asked if it was legitimate for journalists to be on the scene, she answered, “I think the mayor ultimately believes that it is appropriate for journalists to be wherever people are gathered lawfully.” (Her statement was left hanging until someone referenced it later, saying that in order to continue covering an illegal activity, they would likely need to get farther away from the action, or run the risk of getting in the way.)

Further, “I think we have determined a special role for media to assure that members of the media have access and the information they need to tell a story. Having watched hours of footage, I’d be hard-pressed to think we didn’t give great access,” she said. But does that mean bloggers and traditional journalists should be lumped together as equals? “I don’t know who the journalist is … I think our approach was probably to treat everyone the same.”

Lawful journalists?

But the Associated Press’ David Pyle testified that not everyone was treated the same, not even within his news crew. Four AP staffers were detained, including one photographer who was forced to the ground and “roughed up” before being let go and another who was held for 10 hours. Coincidentally, it was one of their AP photos that the police used to ask for the public’s help in identifying the alleged anarchist who broke the Macy’s window during a protest. Pyle said he was relieved that police didn’t credit the AP. “We don’t want to be identified as an investigatory arm [of the police].”

Twin Cities attorney Mark Anfinson, who specializes in First Amendment law, said that when given the order to disperse, journalists “very much like covering a war, proceed with some risk. Here the risk is being arrested… It’s hard to see where the police violated rights as opposed to acting without a lot of tact or wisdom,” he said. “A lot of these charges were of this species, about failure to obey a lawful order… What’s a lawful order?”

Dave Aeikens, the national president of SPJ and staff writer of the St. Cloud Times, said he hopes that journalists and law enforcement officials can come to an understanding so arrests can be avoided in the future. While he said that SPJ prefers not to define who is a journalist, WCCO’s Jason DeRusha commented that he thought the whole reason for coming together was to find out who gets to be in the “in crowd.” Contrary to that, he said, independent media advocates seem to be arguing that journalists shouldn’t be afforded any special protections.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which maintained a hotline for journalists during the RNC, said from her Virginia office that she was prepared for some of the things that went wrong. “Sometimes you have to get arrested,” she said, in order to keep doing your job. But in certain cases, such as the scenario with the AP staffers, “That is inexcusable.”

Photos by Kathy Easthagen