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FIRST AMENDMENT ON TRIAL Senate press cop breaks her silence
Reuters rep on panel admits pass-vetting process 'random' http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=28560 ----- Posted: August 12, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Paul Sperry © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. The lone woman on the five-member Standing Committee of Correspondents for the Senate Press Gallery admits that the process the panel goes through to vet applicants for press passes is "random."
Donna Smith, the committee's secretary and a senior member, says that the quasi-government panel, which operates outside public view, does not even meet regularly.
"It's random," she said in a phone interview. "We meet every several weeks or so, as things come up."
Also, the panel, which decides which media can and can't cover Congress, often changes meeting places sometimes convening in the offices of the Senate press gallery, other times in those of the House press gallery, says Smith, a congressional correspondent for Reuters news service.
Under federal sunshine and open-meetings law, other government bodies must post notices of meetings including the time and place, names of participants and agenda items in the Federal Register at least a week in advance.
The press panel is governed by the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The ranking Republican member is Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Its lack of formal procedures confirms suspicions by some press gallery applicants who have been denied membership, including WorldNetDaily, that the panel which has extraordinary and exceptional powers that often rub against the First Amendment is both unprofessional and unaccountable.
WND is appealing the panel's decision, arguing that members delayed review of its application for a full year for political reasons, denied it due process out of spite, and judged the popular newssite against moving standards, thereby infringing on its constitutional right to cover Congress as a member of the free press.
"It's confirmation of what we've observed over the past 18 months (including the appeals period) an arbitrary and capricious decision-making process, devoid of any standards," said WND counsel Richard Ackerman of the nonprofit U.S. Justice Foundation.
Added WND founder and editor Joseph Farah: "It's as we've suspected all along they've been making up the rules as they go."
"I'm glad someone on the committee was honest enough to admit it," he said.