Should the governor of Pennsylvania and his top staff be allowed to write commentary for newspapers and journals, but not other state workers?
That’s a controversy now brewing in Harrisburg.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett writes a column for Philly.com, publisher of the Philadelphia Daily News and Philadelphia Inquirer.
Other high-ranking state employees regularly write columns for newspapers like the Harrisburg Patriot-News.
But two weeks after hosting a community forum featuring opponents of Gov. Tom Corbett, a state worker has been told he cannot write a column for a Pennsylvania journal.
Alan Kennedy-Shaffer, who by day works as a staff attorney for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, was advised by supervisors in the LCB on June 19 that he may not write an unpaid column for the Legal Intelligencer, a lawyers’ trade journal.
This isn’t the first time the state has tried to muzzle Kennedy-Shaffer.
Last year, Kennedy-Shaffer was told he could not host community forums. Kennedy-Shaffer hosts the evening forums with his group Harrisburg Hope. He appealed that decision to the governor’s office of administration, and won.
“Harrisburg Hope, and Kennedy-Shaffer, hosted many community forums in the last few years concerning Harrisburg’s debt crisis. Former Harrisburg Receiver David Unkovic had his first and last public appearances at Harrisburg Hope forums,” I wrote in NewsLanc last year.
“Kennedy-Shaffer and his forums have been widely credited with bringing about a change of heart with former Receiver Unkovic, who resigned this spring after calling for a criminal investigation of Harrisburg’s debt, and implicating Gov. Corbett’s office in a cover-up of that matter.”
Three weeks ago, on June 5, Kennedy-Shaffer and Harrisburg Hope hosted a community forum attended by several candidates for governor running against Gov. Corbett.
Corbett was invited, but didn’t attend. During the event an empty chair was left on stage for the governor.
Two weeks later, while he sat at his desk at the LCB, Kennedy-Shaffer says a supervisor came to his desk and angrily “slammed down” a formal notice forbidding Kennedy-Shaffer from writing a planned column on liquor law for the trade journal Legal Intelligencer.
“You are to discontinue all supplementary employment activities involving the The Legal Intelligencer,” the order stated. “The activities … are in conflict with your normal work duties and professional obligations as an Assistant Counsel (Attorney 2) and a violation of the Liquor Code and the PLCB Code of Conduct.”
“(A) column authored by you regarding liquor law matters could violate rules related to conflict of Interest,” Kennedy-Shaffer was warned.
But Kennedy-Shaffer says he had no plans to write about confidential LCB matters in his column.
Why, he wonders, by the same standard, can Gov. Corbett write a column for philly.com?
Corbett’s first column for philly.com appeared in late May.
At the time, Corbett’s spokesperson, Kevin Harley, told Philly.com, the governor “will not be paid for his work, which could take the form of a column on an issue he is advocating – liquor privatization, for example – or a video essay that would show ‘different sides of the governor, talking from home, or talking from his office, about things and issues that are important to him.'”
Philly.com and its parent company were roundly criticized for offering a regular column to the beleaguered governor.
“There is no political bias or intent, other than providing content that is interesting to our readers” Robert J. Hall, chief executive officer of Interstate General Media, parent company of Philly.com, The Inquirer, and Philadelphia Daily News, told its readers on May 25.
“Journalism ethicists said the website’s offering of free space to a political leader nonetheless raised troubling questions,” stated the article, which ran without a byline, and was credited to unnamed Philly.com “Staff Writers.”
“Obviously, there’s a lot of room for confusion among your audience,” the anonymous article went on. “You have split Philly.com and the newspaper, but the audience still sees it as the same site,” said Kelly McBride, who teaches journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute. “What about The Inquirer’s watchdog coverage of the governor? . . . Or are you going to be partners with the sitting governor and carry his agenda?”
Hoping, apparently, to blunt criticism, CEO Hall was allowed to offer this strange explanation: “Philly.com,” Hall said, “offers content from various media sources, including blogs, many of which express opinions. As a result,” he said, “it is not bound by traditional newspaper conventions such as the need for a clear distinction between those who write the news and those who make it.”
More conventionally, on June 23, Christopher Abruzzo, Acting Secretary for the state Department of Environmental Protection, published an article in the Harrisburg Patriot titled, “State is working hard to save the Susquehanna River: As I See it.”
Regular readers of the Patriot, and other newspapers, know there’s a long tradition of inviting state workers to write a column explaining government policy to readers.
So in the journalistic quagmire recently muddied by Corbett, Philly.com, the Inquirer and the Daily News, it’s not clear why Kennedy-Shaffer should not be allowed to write a column for the Legal Intelligencer.
Kennedy-Shaffer has appealed the order to Corbett’s Office of Administration.
“Our First Amendment rights, especially freedom of speech, cannot be abridged by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board or any other government agency simply because the PLCB may disagree with our personal views or is fearful that we may say something they don’t like,” Kennedy-Shaffer wrote in his appeal.
Maybe Gov. Tom Corbett will write a column about it.
Are you implying that Corbett had some direct influence on the PLCB’s decision to censor Kennedy-Shaffer’s writing outside of work? Or am I reading too much into this?
“Our First Amendment rights, especially freedom of speech, cannot be abridged by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board or any other government agency simply because the PLCB may disagree with our personal views or is fearful that we may say something they don’t like, Kennedy-Shaffer wrote in his appeal.”.
As an employee of the State of Pennsylvania Kennedy-Shaffer has the responsibility of carrying out the agenda of the elected administration to the best of his ability. Writing articles or taking public positions in opposition to the elected administration gives the public the impression Kennedy-Shaffer is not working to implement the administrations agenda and therefore working against the will of the majority of Pennsylvania voters.
This is not a new concept. Would we like to read columns and perhaps see videos made by active military personnel who disagreed with the President? Perhaps even hosting events protesting the Presidents policies? I doubt it. When you accept a job there are some conditions you must adhere to, or leave the job. If Kennedy-Shaffer values his free speech he needs to find job not in conflict with his employer.
There must be some major accountability with public employees writing or lecturing outside there employment. They have “inside” information that may prove detrimental to fellow employees, agencies and the good of all Pennsylvanians.
That may be the reason many Federal employees are forbidden to hold municipal, county,State elected and appointed positions.