SF Bay Guardian reporter ejected from NAB conference

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2000 12:45PM

Contact: Bruce B. Brugmann, Tim Redmond 415-255-3100

Bay Guardian reporter ejected from NAB Convention

A Bay Guardian reporter was forcibly ejected from the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in San Francisco two days after the paper published a front-page news package critical of the NAB.

Reporter Steve Rhodes was stripped of his press credential and physically removed the Moscone Center convention by two police officers summoned by NAB officals.

The NAB has also revoked the credentials of Jenesse Miller and other credentialed reporters from the Independent Media Center.

Rhodes was not disturbing the convention, engaging in any form of protest or doing anything illegal. He was simply covering the event.

The decision to remove him apparently was made by NAB official Jack Knubel, who told Rhodes that he "was part of the problem."

Rhodes was wearing a press credential issued at the start of the convention by the NAB. The press badge was removed from his possession by the San Francisco Police and turned over to NAB security.

Bay Guardian editor and publisher Bruce B. Brugmann issued the following statement:
"We are appalled by the arrogance of the nation's largest broadcast group (the National Association of Broadcasters) in forcibly ejecting our credentialed reporter from the conference and seizing his press credentials.

This is a group using the public airwaves, meeting in San Francisco's public convention center, in an annual conference to which they invited scores of reporters.

We strongly protest this act of censorship against a newspaper whose only apparent sin is to have published in its current edition a front page package critical of the NAB.

We also strongly protest the NAB pulling press credentialed reporters from Jenesse Miller and other credentialed reporters from the Independent Media Center.

This unprofessional conduct exemplifies the attitude of the nation's monopoly broadcast media who, as the Bay Guardian points out this week, have a record of squelching alternative points of view.

We are protesting this to the NAB board and I am personally demanding the immediate opportunity to address the board on this issue. Moreover, we are calling for the immediate return of the press credentials of Steve Rhodes and credentialed IMC reporters, an apology from the NAB, and a written policy statement from the board insuring that no reporter will ever again be denied access to a NAB program or event on the basis of politics."

CC:
Appropriate Senate and House Committees
Federal Communications Commission
Media critics and reporters for the New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review, American Journalism Review, Brills Content, and the newsletter and website for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, and other mainstream and alternative publications
Bay Area Congressional Delegation
California First Amendment Coalition
Freedom of Information Committee, Society of Professional Journalists