InForum
On the heels of a school board meeting abruptly adjourned after a television microphone spat, the Breckenridge district announced a new set of rules for media attendance.
The rules, interim Superintendent Warren Schmidt said, seek to avert confusion, not to inconvenience reporters.
But Fargo-Moorhead television news directors expressed concern about the rules. They said the rules–from banning microphones on the desk at which board members are seated to requiring the media to give heads-up they’ll attend open meetings–will interfere with their work and go against the spirit of the state’s open meetings law.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’m a guy who’s covered hundreds and hundreds of school board meetings,” said Jim Shaw, a news director at KVRR-TV, Fargo’s Fox affiliate. More…