The year was 1997.
At the time I had already been working as a television news reporter for four years at WSTMTV in Syracuse, New York.
They hired me despite having a face for radio, an eye chart of a last name, and being as green as the grass is long. I was a junior at the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University when I landed my first journalism job at that NBC affiliate, now known as CNY Central.
It was a Sunday. May 18th to be exact. Twenty-seven years ago this week. Photojournalist Chris Barrus and yours truly were working on what we thought was going to be a slow news day.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
We received word that a Native American protest was going to be taking place on the Onondaga Nation territory, which happened to run right through Route 81, a major
highway connecting Northern New York State to Tennessee. At issue was an agreement New York State government and some Chiefs entered into concerning taxes on cigarettes and gasoline.
We parked our news vehicle on a side road, at a lower elevation of Route 81, so no one really saw Chris and I approaching. While I parked, he grabbed his gear, ran over the hill, and got to the protest scene as soon as possible. I was about two minutes behind him.
When I walked over the small hill and saw the expanse of Route 81, I couldn’t believe the scene in front of me: rows and rows of New York State police in riot gear, bonfires,
protestors, all in the middle of the highway, which was now totally
shut down.
A violent melee erupted between law enforcement and Native American protestors. A number of police were hurt in the fracas. To this day, I can’t get the sound out
of my head of batons hitting bone.
It was a rapid-fire “ding” similar to when an aluminum bat crushes
a softball. It didn’t stop for many minutes.
Keep in mind, cell phones weren’t prevalent at the time. Chris the photojournalist was nowhere to be found. I had no idea if he was in the middle of this battle or videotaping
from a distance. Many protestors were arrested and lined up in a singular row along the highway. One of those in cuffs stood out: It was Chris the photographer.
Unbeknownst to me, a highranking New York State Police officer grabbed Chris and his camera and threatened him, ordered him to stop recording, that he was going
to “ruin relations” with Channel 3. The police officer pulled the camera to the ground and placed Chris in handcuffs.
Thankfully Chris recorded this, along with the protest, and if memory serves me correctly this member of law enforcement was demoted a rank because of his physical altercation and threat with a member of the press.
Fast-forward 27 years later, and another government entity most certainly did not learn their lesson on the First Amendment and freedom of the press and freedom of speech. Lawyers from the Syracuse City School District sent my former station a threatening “cease and desist” letter for reporters to stop contacting publicly elected commissioners and district officials.
Keep in mind, these are reporters touching base with elected officials and administrators concerning a story about a teacher who was violently attacked in the classroom.
Folks, as the old saying goes, sunshine is the best disinfectant, whether it is CNY Central, the South Shore Press, or any other media outlet in America.
Democracy depends on a free press, a necessary fourth branch of government that is supposed to hold elected officials and those in power accountable. Without the checks and balances of independent watchdogs keeping a close eye on government, corruption and abuse would run rampant in our communities. Without the media's ability to independently question and hold public officials accountable, our communities would resemble third world
dictatorships. It sure sounds like Kim Jung Un is running the Syracuse School District’s Office of Public Communications.
Keep in mind, I have a strong and unique perspective of both sides of media, having worked in front of the camera and being the elected official getting grilled by pesky reporters. For nine years I served as the independently elected Erie County Comptroller, and for the past year was Vivek Ramaswamy’s spokesman for his presidential campaign.
In my mind, I’d be a billionaire if I had a dollar for every time I felt like media ran unfair or unflattering stories on yours truly when I was in
public service or representing politicians on the campaign trail. Was media always “fair and balanced” towards yours truly or Republicans? Absolutely not. We only elevate discourse and shoot down bad ideas or hold government accountable by engaging in more speech, not stifling it.
Our Founding Fathers thought so strongly about freedom of speech and freedom of the press they enshrined it in one of the amendments of the Constitution: the First one. While media can most definitely be biased and sometimes unfair, it does not give those in power an excuse to abuse their authority to restrict the freedom of the press.