Editorial - Interior secretary’s media ban is astonishing

...The community, public officials and newspaper staff were excited to see a federal official taking time to visit the northwest corner of Colorado. Moffat County holds the largest stake in the sage grouse debate in Colorado, with 75 percent of the county’s land comprising sage grouse habitat. 

Therefore, residents, businesses, elected officials and conservation groups in Moffat County are extremely concerned about the happenings of sage grouse and have been for more than a year. No one seems to want the bird to be listed as an endangered species, and everyone wants to protect the bird while ensuring private and public land use rights are not violated.

Jewell’s visit, however, was marred by a negative decision she made regarding a public meeting. She held a meeting at the American Legion in Craig after a sage grouse habitat tour.

Members of the press were invited on the tour but were not allowed at the meeting. Craig Daily Press reporter Erin Fenner was kicked out of the meeting twice by Jewell’s staff. What’s concerning about the situation is that members of the public were allowed in the sage grouse meeting but not the media. 

We’d like to remind the secretary that members of the press are also members of the public. Additionally, the governor, all three county commissioners — who posted information about the meeting and personally invited the press — were in attendance at that meeting, as were elected officials from Routt, Rio Blanco and Garfield counties...

We’re not on a crusade against Jewell, we just want her to acknowledge the double standard that was created Tuesday. If every elected official in America decided to close the press out of meetings to foster frank discussion, well, we would not have a democracy.

If Jewell continues to hold such meetings across the nation where she kicks local media out of public meetings, we think her tenure as secretary of interior will be shadowed by criticism from the press and the public, and the hard work she undertakes as a federal official will fall by the wayside.

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