Friday, February 17, 2006
But it's "only an opinion," right?
The Northwestern's Alex Hummel includes some quotes from me in his report on Assistant AG Alan Lee's first impression comments regarding Tuesday's closed Council meeting. Apparently Oshkosh City Attorney Warren Kraft forwarded Hummel's earlier online version of the story to the Councilors, City Manager, and staff. I'm not sure why Kraft would care what Alan Lee thinks. After all, it's "only an opinion," right? City Hall has made it clear that when it comes to the law, only what Kraft thinks matters. (Unless citizens are willing to spend money and time they do not have to haul the city into court after each one of these digressions.).
I teach Communication Studies (First Amendment, Classical Rhetoric, Civic Engagement, Rhetoric of Rock Music) at UW Oshkosh. Served two terms on Oshkosh City Council. Originally from Brooklyn, NY.
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2 comments:
This Hummel person does not indicate what the set-up info was. It's not like a TV interview where you see phrasing, tone, nuance and the previous questions that all lead up to the moment of a particular quote. The reason the statement "taken out of context" is heard so often.
People I have known who worked in government frequently expressed frustration over quotes that were technically accurate or somewhat accurate but ultimately very far from the speaker's intent, or occurred after a leading question.
The reporter could have just been rushed, the Northwestern could POSSIBLY be being intentionally inflammatory (imagine!) and wanting to back off of sharing ANY opinion with people who have gotten in playground scuffles with Stew. Also - this kind of tempest in teapots sells a few more papers.
I still see this article as a complete non-issue. It's all hear-say. If we're going to play "Perry Mason" let's just go all the way. Perry wouldn't give it any credence, why should the Cauldron Contents?
( I get to be a newt! k? )
And it should not be surprising to anyone that an attorney general's office would lean toward supporting a decision to close a meeting before hearing all of the facts. The AG has to assume that local governments are run by conscientious, honorable elected officials and city attorneys who take the law seriously in both letter and spirit. To opine against them on the basis of a reporter's query would violate the trust that needs to exist between the DA and the municipality.
Who knows what the Northwestern's motivations are in all of this. Had they been outraged by the closed meeting, they could have easily asked Hummel to seek the AG opinion before the meeting or at least editorialized about the meeting before it occurred. I know they have some concerns about the financing of Five Rivers, as any sane person would, but that would not really explain the approach they are taking on the closed meeting. Probably harped pymwymi has it all figured out.
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