Censorship and Gov. Snyder

Gov. Rick Snyder is in trouble and he’s not going to weasel his way around it.

At the moment, it’s the Flint water issue that has everyone’s attention. But that’s not all we’ll have to remember Snyder by.

The self-proclaimed nerd governor, who until recently seemingly avoided party politics, did a 180-degree turn in December and signed two bills rammed through the state Legislature by the Republicans.

·         The first bill eliminates straight-ticket voting. Snyder said he signed the bill because people should know who they’re voting for, not just the party they’re affiliated with.

·         The second bill makes it a crime for school districts, governments and other public bodies to discuss, in any way, local ballot measures within 60 days of an election.

If the first bill requires voters to find out details of people and issues on the ballot, how can they do so if government employees can’t talk about those very issues?

There are only two ways around these bills: repeal them, or failing that, rely on the beleaguered press.

Local television new teams seems immune to layoffs despite their golly-gosh, gee-whiz reporting. One exception to this is Hank Winchester from WDIV, who was one of the first on the Flint water story and has stayed with it every day.

One of Winchester’s best moments came when Snyder said he had called out the National Guard to help distribute bottled water in Flint, and Winchester reported that only seven guard members had arrived.

As for the print media, it’s up to them to fight the censorship imposed by Snyder and publish ballot details so we can make intelligent decisions. This will mean persuading officials to talk, probably anonymously, with those trusting that the reporters will protect their sources.

Print does, or did, something television can’t do – interview all the candidates for office in person, even if it’s just five graphs on the person or issue. But with the very recent layoffs at papers such as The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, they might not have the staff to continue these interviews.

The Observer & Eccentric Newspapers are particularly good at interviewing all the candidates in their readership areas. Local papers, local interviews. Television is too fleeting for local, individual interviews. A newspaper gives you something to read when you can, and study the issues.

Local interviews are very labor intensive, particularly for a depleted staff. Morale at the News and the Freep is low. Usually, low morale in the newsroom doesn’t lead to much industrious work. It’s much easier to do a story over the phone.

Let’s hope the newspapers can fill the void left by Snyder’s censorship decree.