The lingering flap over who calls the shots at the
Government Channel in Fayetteville seems to be
moving toward a decision. At stake is the channel’s airing of public forums on topics of wide—even controversial—interest. The city’s public information czar, Susan Thomas, has stepped in to announce that the forums will no longer be aired on the Government Channel. The Telecommunications Board, which oversees the doings of the Government Channel, has objected—or at least the board’s chairman, Richard Drake, has objected. Mr. Drake thinks the city administration, with Ms. Thomas in the lead, wants to stifle uncomfortable news on the channel. He defines “uncomfortable” as anything that doesn’t make the city look good. If Richard Drake sounds a bit paranoid, he’s got his reasons. Not long ago, the administration fired the long-time cable administrator, Marvin Hilton, who is not being replaced for now. The reasons for Mr. Hilton’s firing have never been explained. But with his departure, Susan Thomas has made a ham-handed attempt to insert herself into the way the Telecommunications Board conducts its business. At the board’s last meeting, she announced that she would be the one giving the administrator’s reports from now on. This usurpation of power has all the earmarks of an outright takeover by the city of what has long been an independent Government Channel, well insulated from the politics of always volatile Fayetteville.
Why does this matter ?
Aside from the pettiness of the city’s slapping the Telecom board around, the controversy involves some serious issues of public information and who controls it. The ordinance setting up the board states that “the goal is to create an informed and involved citizenry.” The resolution establishing policy for the Telecom board states that the Government Channel is meant to “help create an open and participatory local government. The channel is administered by the city’s cable administrator under the guidelines established and interpreted by the Telecommunications Board.”
Sounds good. And, under the guidance of the board, the channel has done its job well for many years. The public forums the channel has put on have covered such hot topics in Fayetteville as the city-wide smoking ban and the value of impact fees. Of late, the channel planned to produce forums on two more issues du jour: the location of Fayetteville High School and the future of the Walton Arts Center.
But at the same meeting that Susan Thomas usurped the duties of the cable administrator, she also confirmed that the Government Channel was getting out of the business of producing public forums. The forums hadn’t actually been canceled, she rationalized. The planning for the forums had simply been stopped.
This isn’t the first time city government has tried to rein in the Telecom board. Nearly eight years ago, one city alderman tried to undermine the board’s authority over the Government Channel and give the city council more say. The proposal was eventually tabled, but not before a number of Fayetteville residents had their say.
Now that the question of the board’s authority has come up again, the words of one resident in particular have been making the rounds of the Internet blogs in Fayetteville, where interest in this flap over the Government Channel has been robust.
The money quote is from Dan Coody, a private citizen in 2000, soon to become the mayor of Fayetteville, whose administration is now squeezing the Telecom board. (Give the blogs credit, somebody always knows where the bodies—or at least the quotes—are buried. )
Here’s what the city council minutes record Dan Coody as saying in 2000: “Mr. Dan Coody, an area resident, stated if they had the council over the cable board it would only bring more politics into the process than what were there already. He thought that was a big mistake. As far as bringing the debates onto the Government Channel he thought it was very appropriate, because they needed more political dialogue rather than less. They needed to open it up so there would be more dialogue and free exchange of ideas and perspectives.”
What a difference nearly eight years in the mayor’s office makes. Now the Coody administration is trying hard to close down dialogue and the free exchange of ideas and perspectives on the Government Channel. Richard Drake worries that if this administration is allowed to get away with its takeover of the Telecom board, some future administration will be even more restrictive. The precedent would be established. The Government Channel would become little more than an administration-friendly propaganda arm. Last time, the city council told an over-zealous alderman to back off from meddling with the Telecom board. This time, the city council needs to tell the administration the same thing.
—––––– • –––––—George Arnold is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s northwest edition.
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