Comments Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
On The Associated Press’s Release
Of Its Termination Letter Relating To Chris Graff
Wednesday, May 3, 2006
“If anything, this letter makes
AP’s decision all the more difficult to accept and understand.
“Those of us in public life never
agree with all the news coverage we receive. But within the two
rough-and-tumble professions of public service and journalism, I
have never heard anything but praise about Chris Graff for his
professionalism and his evenhandedness, and he has earned that
praise.
“The ironies of censoring
discussion of the public’s right to know -- during Sunshine
Week, to boot -- have already been noted by others.
“But it must also be noted that AP
itself takes an advocacy position each year during Sunshine
Week. AP bureaus across the country distribute and also produce
materials in which these issues are examined. At a Senate
Judiciary Committee hearing that we recently held, a prominent
AP witness testified – and forcefully -- in support of the
public’s right to know and of the bipartisan FOIA reform bills
that I have authored and introduced in the Senate with one of
the Senate’s most conservative Republican members.
“Earlier this year the American
Society of Newspaper Editors once again asked for my
observations for Sunshine Week, which they distributed to every
newspaper in the country. Making the incidental effort to
ensure that Vermont’s editors were aware of this was,
apparently, Chris Graff’s ‘mistake,’ in the view of his
supervisor.
“The letter’s explanation is all
the more amazing because the piece that I wrote and that Mr.
Graff simply called to Vermont’s editors’ attention is all about
the public’s right to know, calling on the government to be more
open with the press and the public. Since Sunshine Week, and to
this day, I still have not seen anyone venture forth with any
column arguing otherwise, that the government these days is
sharing too much information with the press and the public.”
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