Wanted (still): Streamed editorial board meetings

The Chronicle runs two staff editorials today that refer to secret conversations with the editorial board.

There's an overreaching rant about those evil Republicans in Austin that contains this tidbit:

When he visited the Houston Chronicle in April, Gov. Rick Perry told the editorial board that he thought the legislative session was going very well, so smoothly that it was almost boring.

How would we know?

And there's another rant about those evil Republicans in Washington that contains this tidbit:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who served seven years on the ethics committee, told the Chronicle editorial board that Hastings' actions undermine the committee's impartiality and its ability to police the conduct of House members. She says Republicans are still trying to get even for the three ethics citations issued by the committee against DeLay last year.

When? Transcript?

We've seen enough mistakes on the editorial page not to trust everything we see printed (or the agenda of some of the editorialists), and we really don't need the Chron editorialists of all people to filter discussions for us so they can tell us what to think.

These secretive meetings with political leaders are simply archaic. As we suggested at the start of the year, it's time for editorial board meetings with important figures to be recorded and the audio/video to be placed online. Chron partner KHOU-11 ought to be more than willing to assist in such an important public service.

If anyone at the Chronicle would like me to give someone over at KHOU a ring to try to facilitate this, please drop me an email. I know the editorial board stays very busy conjuring up new treaties, LiveJournaling about cabaret singers, and protecting leftovers, so I'd be happy to devote a little time and effort to this particular cause if it would help.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/01/05 10:26 PM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (0)

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blogHouston returns again today to a familiar theme ... the idea that editorial board meetings with the local newspaper be streamed online so that readers/citizens can view the full proceedings (click here for the full post): "We've seen enough mistakes on the editorial page not to trust everything we see printed ... and we really don't need the Chron editorialists of all people to filter discussions for us so they can tell us what to think." Interesting. Would providing full transcripts of ed board meetings be a step forward, or would it serve to make sources -- and thus the process -- less forthcoming? What do you think?

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Unfortunately, abusive spammers have forced us to disable incoming trackback pings. The Technorati link should list related posts. Feel free to drop us an email if you've linked a post and would like to let us know about it.

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