Journalism Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

19 Oct, 2020

WUOT reporter obtains White House COVID-19 report

By Deborah Fisher|2020-10-19T15:14:21-05:00October 19, 2020|Categories: Journalism, state records|Tags: COVID-19, WUOT|1 Comment

WUOT 91.9 FM reporter Claire Heddles demonstrated last week that making a public records request to the right person is sometimes all it takes. The White House Coronavirus Task Force is distributing to governors a weekly report on the COVID-19 epidemic. The task force does not make the reports available to the public, but they have been released in some states by local and state officials. In Tennessee, however, Gov. Bill Lee downplayed the importance of releasing those reports in a press conference last week with Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey. And the Center for Public Integrity, which has been compiling the task force reports from various states, lists Tennessee among [...]

9 May, 2020

Memphis news group alleges First Amendment violation over media advisory list blacklisting

By Deborah Fisher|2020-05-09T14:18:03-05:00May 9, 2020|Categories: Journalism|Tags: blacklist, First Amendment, Memphis, MLK50, Paul McAdoo, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Wendi Thomas|0 Comments

Nonprofit online news organization MLK50 in Memphis has told a federal judge overseeing a consent decree against the city that the city has violated its journalists' First Amendment rights and the court order by repeatedly refusing to add its editors to the city's media advisory list. The city of Memphis has refused to add MLK50 founder and editor Wendi Thomas to the media advisory list after taking her off in 2019. The city has complained she is not "objective" when it comes to her coverage of the mayor. In a letter written on May 4, attorney Paul McAdoo told U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla that the city of Memphis [...]

9 May, 2020

Knoxville reporter barred from COVID-19 briefing after critical story

By Deborah Fisher|2020-05-10T09:14:37-05:00May 9, 2020|Categories: Journalism|Tags: COVID-19, Knox County, Knoxville News Sentinel, Mike Donila, press briefing, Vincent Gabrielle|0 Comments

Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Vincent Gabrielle was shut out of a COVID-19 daily press briefing after writing a story highlighting the city's lack of data-sharing on its re-opening benchmarks. Knox County's communications director shut out a Knoxville News Sentinel reporter from the daily COVID-19 briefings on Friday, shortly after his story published about the county not sharing data behind its re-opening benchmarks. The daily briefing is held through Zoom, and news reporters across the city have been given access to the meeting code. However, when news reporter Vincent Gabrielle tried to enter the press briefing where reporters could ask questions through a chat function, he was not allowed in. When [...]