House bill could hinder newspapers, free press

Tom Milstead
Posted 1/23/19

A bill in the Wyoming State Legislature has newspaper publishers worried the industry – and the free press itself – is under attack from lobbyists and politicians.

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House bill could hinder newspapers, free press

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CHEYENNE – A bill in the Wyoming State Legislature has newspaper publishers worried the industry – and the free press itself – is under attack from lobbyists and politicians. 

House Bill 201, introduced by Rep. David Burkhart, Jr. (R-Carbon County) would change a current state statute which dictates that municipalities and county governments must select a paper of record and publish the minutes to all regular and special meetings or the governing body, as well as the names of all ordinances passed. If the bill passes, it would become optional for governing bodies to name an official paper of record, and the bodies would have the choice to post the minutes on their own websites or physically in their respective clerks’ office. 

According to Bob Bonnar, lobbyist for the Wyoming Press Association and editor-publisher of the Newcastle News Letter Journal, the bill is an outright attack on the newspaper industry and he does not know why the change is being discussed. 

“I’m really surprised by it and concerned about it because three of the sponsors on the senate side are from the Senate Corporations Committee, which has worked for nine months, I thought, to improve government transparency,” Bonnar said. “It really is a surprise to me. It’s obviously an attack on newspapers by associations that represent government official who don’t like newspapers doing their jobs. It’s an effort to weaken newspapers and I don’t know how far they intend to go with it, to be honest with you.” 

Bonnar said he first heard about the bill during a meeting of the interim corporations committee last April. He thought the notion was dead after that meeting – but said lobbying groups in Cheyenne have resurrected the measure. 

“We answered that then and the committee didn’t even make a motion to do this after it was asked for by these associations with us in the room,” Bonnar said. “It was a back-and-forth conversation, pros and cons were put before the committee, and nobody in the committee even made a motion for something like this. 

“The Wyoming Association of Municipalities, the Wyoming County Commissioners Association and the Wyoming School Boards Association consistently lobby for this. Year after year, it seems like newspapers have to defend their very existence. Basically, they’re bureaucracies in the purest sense of the word. They don’t actually represent any people, they represent elected officials and public employees and they lobby pretty vigorously in the Wyoming State Legislature. They’ve got significant budgets and significant relationships and it’s a constant pressure from those organizations to weaken, and I think in the endgame, to eliminate newspapers in their communities.”

Wyoming County Commissioners Association Executive Director Pete Obermuller denied the claim, and said he was as surprised by the bill as anyone. 

“With respect to the bill, we were just as surprised to see it filed as Mr. Bonnar was,” Obermuller said. “The WCCA doesn’t have an official position on it as of now. The commissioners set their positions on Thursday, so we’ll see what they decide about it.”

The lost revenue to the newspapers isn’t the biggest concern for the WPA, however. The bigger issue is access to public records.

“Obviously there are harms to newspaper financially, but that’s really secondary,” he said. “These are the same organizations that claim they need to charge you a fee to e-mail you a public record. They constantly say they need new systems, their people aren’t trained well enough, to handle public record requests for digital records. Now these same people are saying they can publish public notices digitally cheaper than newspapers? It simply isn’t true by their own admission.” 

According to Bonnar, the bill is just the latest piece of legislation intended to hinder the press. Bonnar said he believes this type of legislation could eventually result in limited access to public meetings and the end of government transparency, if certain lobbying groups get their way. 

“I’ve had to get language amended out of bills and defeat bills that specifically attempt to do this pretty consistently over the last eight years,” he said. 

“Once it’s in session and lobbyists can access individual legislators without it being as public and transparent, the bill has apparently got some supporters. Nobody supported this move in the public meeting in the spring in Lander when these groups asked for it. They had no legislative support at all. But now when you’re in Cheyenne, you’re in the area that lobbyists are considerably stronger than citizens, particularly lobbyists in associations that are funded by taxpayers. They’ve got an abundance of resources and an advantage once the legislature shifts back to Cheyenne. They’re using the advantage right now.

“I would say if they succeed on this, that open meetings would be their next target, eventually.”

Currently, the bill has been referred to the Travel, Recreation and Wildlife Committee for further discussion. As of press time, Burkhart did not respond to a request for comment. 

When asked for his perspective on HB 201 Lusk Mayor Doug Lytle said he would like to know the purpose and reasoning behind the bill. The cost savings that could be realized would potentially be negated by the decrease in accessibility and transparency. Mayor Lytle was not convinced this legislation had appropriately reviewed the long-term ramifications on the communities with small newspapers that would potentially go out of business without strong revenues from municipality and county legal notices.

Niobrara County commissioners Elaine Griffith and John Midkiff also had reservations about the efficacy of this bill. Commissioner Griffith said she did not yet have enough information about the bill to have a specific opinion. She could understand how this would save the county a lot of money but has serious concerns about accessibility for those who are interested in what is happening with local government. Commissioner Midkiff was quick to respond that, in his personal opinion, a bill like this was wrong and started down a slippery slope. A public office is a public trust and any entity that collects tax money and operates for the people should be transparent about their meetings and intentions, he said. The way the legislation reads is problematic since there is essentially no guaranteed way of obtaining the information if one does not have Internet access, short of a request that typed, paper copies are distributed. Commissioner Midkiff said he knows people read those minutes in the paper because he as received feedback and had productive discussion with county residents who have received their information via the printed version of the newspaper.

Commissioner Wade was unavailable
for comment.