On a hot summer day, hundreds of people waited for hours to get into the grand opening of the swimming pools at the downtown McMurtrey Aquatics Center.? News organizations came to cover the event, but little did most of them know that they would be waiting just as long, if not longer, to get inside.
?Two local outlets, KERO-TV 23 and KLLY 95.3 radio, had “exclusive ccess” to the center that is owned by the city, water park officials said.?
Among the reporters who weren’t initially allowed into the public area were KGET-TV 17, KBAK-TV 29, The Bakersfield Californian and a reporter and photographer from the summer journalism workshop at Bakersfield College.?
?Californian reporter Matt Weiser stood in line and paid $1 to get in but Californian photographer Casey Christie refused to pay and had to take pictures over the fence.
Some news executives later said in interviews that they saw the snafu as a violation of constitutional rights to freedom of the press.
Alan Christensen, the interim recreation and parks director said that the city had an agreement with KERO and KLLY, but all the media were supposed to be let in.?
“It was a promotion agreement,” he said.? “It didn’t mean they would have exclusive coverage.” ??
KERO sales manager Steve McEvoy said that his station was sponsoring a private fund-raising event at the aquatics center.
“Being a media sponsor doesn’t bar the media,” he said.? “It was a mistake on their part.”
KGET news director John Pillos called the Bakersfield Police Department to try and get the media into the public facility.
“Our rights to access a public facility were being denied,” he said.
BC journalism adviser Kathy Freeman, who is also the coordinator of the BC summer journalism workshop, said this creates ethical issues.
“When media outlets enter into advertising agreements that affect news coverage, this creates all sorts of ethical conflicts,” she said. “In this particular situation, the city tried to control access so the city could guarantee positive publicity about the pool opening. Obviously, this backfired.”
Nevertheless, Pillos said the police were advised by city attorney Ginny Gennaro not to let the rest of the media in.
Gennaro was at the center during the opening.? She said she was touring the outside of the facility with her parents when an employee recognized her and asked her to help with the media.? ?”I based it on the facts given to me at the time,” she said.?
“I was looking at it at a liability standpoint,” she said.? ????Gennaro said her concern was for public safety because it was so crowded. “My concern was more on the safety of the public inside,” she said.
“What you have is a miscommunication between myself and the staff,” she said. Officials at the center said a memo was sent out to the media that said they could come at 11 a.m. on June 12 for a tour of the facility. “It wasn’t a tour we were after,” Pillos said.
Media organization officials said they didn’t know if they received that memo though.
Pillos said he was contacted by Gennaro and said she apologized for the mistake.
Mike Jenner, the executive editor at The Californian, said he was not pleased with the decision that was made not to let the press in.
“The city has no legal basis to deny us access to take pictures,” he said.? “We certainly have a right to be there to document what the public is doing.”
Bakersfield City Manager Alan Tandy would not comment on the situation but his Office Administrator of Public Relations, Rhonda Smiley, said the situation was a miscommunication and it was not their intentions for this to happen.