Heath Haussamen
On Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Gov. Bill Richardson sent the governor’s public schedule for the week to the media — sans a few journalists who normally get such e-mails from that office.
I didn’t receive the public schedule. Neither did the entire staff of the New Mexico Independent, a site for which I write.
A journalist at another media outlet was kind enough to forward the schedule to me. When I read it, I discovered that the governor plans to be in Las Cruces later this week.
Funny thing is, the last time Richardson was traveling to Las Cruces, the entire staff of NMI was also conveniently left off the distribution list for his weekly schedule.
Upon further investigation, I discovered on Monday that I’ve not been receiving news releases from the governor’s office for at least a week. Meanwhile, my colleagues at NMI have received all of them except the public schedule sent Monday.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been blacklisted by the governor’s office. Since I and others began reporting on a federal grand jury investigation into allegations of pay to play in the Richardson administration, it’s been a fairly constant issue.
No one from the governor’s office has responded to my requests for comment for any story for months — even those stories that are positive for Richardson.
They don’t have to comment for stories if they don’t want. I have no problem putting into every story that the governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. But refusing to send public information such as the governor’s schedule and other news releases takes things to a whole new level.
There is, of course, a degree of skepticism and, at times, criticism that’s required of any journalist covering politics and government. And communications staffers do and should spend a great deal of time working to sell messages that will advance the policy agendas of their bosses.
It’s possible for journalists and communications staffers to remain professional in spite of the fact that they’re sometimes at odds with each other. Blacklisting journalists, however, is not professional.
In fact, it’s simply petty.