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A Newspaper With Guts: We offer
our gratitude and commendations to
Argus Leader, for
bravely reporting on a politically incorrect
subject, namely,
calling into question
the ethical conduct of the South Dakota Judiciary for
defying the First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. - Ron Branson
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First Amendment under attack
Politicians, others playing loose with public's right to
information | |
April 2, 2022
Spring, at
last, might be in the air. But make no mistake, dear reader. A cold
wind is blowing across South Dakota.
Whether it's the
governor spending your hard-earned tax dollars on lawyers to resist
disclosing the names of buddies invited to his annual pheasant hunt,
or the Legislature's cowardly capitulation to the NRA to close
pistol permits to the public, those of us who think government ought
to be accountable to the public are being backed into a tight
corner. And lest you think that freedom of information is something
only the ACLU cares about, let me introduce you to Dale
Blegen.
Blegen is publisher and editor of The De Smet News,
one of the best weekly newspapers in the state. Every week for a
long time, Blegen has dropped by the Kingsbury County Courthouse to
check the latest judgments in small claims court. He records them -
usually it's just a handful - and publishes them in the next issue
of his newspaper.
Over time, Blegen has found that little
list, like a lot of the minutiae in newspapers, is a public service.
Merchants appreciate it because it alerts them to folks who might
have trouble paying their bills. The county clerk appreciates it
because people being sued are more likely to pay up, rather than see
their name in the paper. And readers - well, they consider it vital
information about what's happening in their community.
Few
things link people of any place like a newspaper. It is where you
find out who has died - and who has been born. You learn that your
taxes are going up - or down. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries,
road construction. A newspaper, whether daily or weekly, reflects
the ebb and flow of life itself. Without one, we lose a connection
to our neighbors - the ones we know and the ones we don't
know.
And without certain information, a bond is
broken.
South Dakota's laws never have made it easy to
collect that information. Now, it's getting even
harder.
Beginning last week, changes approved by the state's
Unified Judicial System will compile all civil judgments into an
electronic database, replacing the old docket books long maintained
by court clerks.
The problem is, it now will cost money to
access that database - $4 per search, and $1 to view a judgment
docket. Or, you can pay $2,500 for an annual subscription to the
statewide database. It's true in Kingsbury County - and everywhere
else in South Dakota. It's true for Blegen - and any other citizen
who used to think the free flow of information actually meant that -
free.
How much are you willing to
pay?
After 40 years of newspapering and advocating
for the First Amendment, Blegen said he's discouraged by what's
happening in South Dakota.
"We're not gaining,'' he said.
"You look around at other states and openness is a way of life.
Here, it's just the opposite.''
Speaking of the First
Amendment: It's alive and well on the campus of South Dakota State
University. Not.
You might have heard that a
Circuit Court judge recently ordered the student-run Collegian to
turn over unpublished photos of a fracas that occurred after a
campus power outage in October. A lawyer defending a student charged
with inciting the alleged riot wanted to introduce the photos as
evidence there was no riot - thus proving his client's
innocence.
A lawyer for the Collegian filed a motion to quash
the subpoena - a motion summarily dismissed by that well-known lover
of a free and vigorous press, Judge Rodney Steele of
Brookings.
"He basically rolled his eyes and said, 'What
First Amendment? There is no First Amendment issue here,' " said
Sherry Fuller Bordewyk, who's been the newspaper's adviser since
January. "And that was that.''
And why, you might ask, would
a newspaper resist such a court order? Isn't it merely being a good
citizen by giving up what is sought?
Let's let Kristin
Marthaler, editor in chief at the Collegian, explain: Newspapers,
she wrote in her column last week, "should not have to give out
names or hand over photos to the government or act like the long arm
of the law. Who will want to talk to the media if they know their
information can get turned over to officials?''
Well said,
Kristin. An independent press cannot be a check on the power of
government, as the Constitution's framers clearly intended, if it's
dragged before every Rodney Steele in the land to turn over its
notes and photos.
That said, the real villain in this sad
tale is the university itself.
SDSU President Peggy Miller has
made no secret of her disdain for the Collegian, which gets no state
money and has, for some time, been on life support. Ironically, this
is the same university where the state's only journalism school is
located.
With the courts pressing for its photos, the
Collegian naturally sought to hire the preeminent First Amendment
lawyer in South Dakota - Sioux Falls' Jon Arneson, who frequently
represents this newspaper in battles for public access. The
university said no - referring the Collegian staff, instead, to a
Brookings lawyer who handles SDSU matters but admittedly knows
little about press law. He lost.
Perhaps predictably, when
Steele ordered the newspaper to comply, there was no appeal. And the
photos now are in the hands of the student's lawyer.
Don't
waste your time waiting for the hue and cry from professors -
frequently the first to whine about limits on academic freedom - or
any corner of the university other than the Collegian staff. There
was none.
Maybe, after all, Rodney Steele is on to something:
First Amendment? What First Amendment?
Confidential to the
governor's mansion: OK, we get it already. You're still sore about
the Argus Leader stories in September chronicling your profligate
use of state airplanes. And you're going to make us pay by refusing
to talk to our reporter in Pierre. We get that. But six months of
sulking seems sufficient. People don't like politicians who
pout.
Randell Beck is executive editor of the Argus Leader.
Contact him at 331-2332 or by e-mail at [email protected].
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