Category Archives: Blogs

Posts that drew the most comments in 2012

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Happy New Year!

Taking a moment to Look back at the past year, here’s a list of the posts on this blog that drew the most comments during 2012.

This just counts comments, not the number of times any post was viewed.

Five of the top ten were related to our local elections, including the 2nd Congressional, Honolulu mayor’s race, and an OHA seat. Interestingly, the antics of Pacific Resource Partnership didn’t slip into the top 10. The rail debate was the subject of two of the top-ten posts, and there were single posts on the UH Stevie Wonder aftermath and the mysteries of Oceanic cable pricing.

In any case, here are the most commented blog posts of 2012.

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FAIR announces its selection of “stinkiest media moments of the year”

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From the folks at FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting), “The P.U.-litzer Prizes for 2012, Recalling some of the stinkiest media moments of the year.”

Reading through their selections is educational, as they show how active reading can cut through blatant media bias.

Here’s just one example:

–Factchecking Your Friends Award: David Gergen, CNN

When a debate broke out over whether the Obama campaign was exaggerating claims about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, the long-time TV talking head weighed in with a CNN.com column, “Facts Don’t Support Obama’s Charges Against Romney” (7/16/12). But Gergen admitted that he has “a past relationship with the top partners at Bain that is both personal and financial”– including getting paid to speak at Bain events. So how did this conflicted factchecker investigate criticisms of his friends? He “reached two of the top people whom I know in the company.” Well, that’s one way to get at the truth.

You’ll also want to check out the Fair Blog, another great source of media perspective.

Radical idea from Oregon–let reporters sit in on executive sessions of public agencies

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Have you ever been asked to leave a public meeting so that the board could go into “executive session” for discussions out of public view?

If so, you’ve probably also wondered how far afield those secret meetings are able to go, even perhaps circumventing the sunshine law?

I’ve been in that situation a number of times. But here’s something I learned yesterday from Civil Beat’s Nick Grube, who came to Hawaii after a stint as a newspaper reporter in Oregon.

Oregon state law provides that “representatives of the news media” have the right to attend closed executive sessions held by public agencies.

Yes, you read that correctly. Reporters can sit in on executive sessions, provided that they cannot report on the proceedings unless they involve matters not authorized to be discussed in a closed meeting.

Here’s the relevant section from Chapter 192 of the Oregon laws (Section 192.660 ORS):

(4) Representatives of the news media shall be allowed to attend executive sessions other than those held under subsection (2)(d) of this section relating to labor negotiations or executive session held pursuant to ORS 332.061 (2) but the governing body may require that specified information be undisclosed.

(5) When a governing body convenes an executive session under subsection (2)(h) of this section relating to conferring with counsel on current litigation or litigation likely to be filed, the governing body shall bar any member of the news media from attending the executive session if the member of the news media is a party to the litigation or is an employee, agent or contractor of a news media organization that is a party to the litigation.

The exception for meetings under subsection (2)(d) refers to closed meetings for discussions with labor negotiators.

These open meeting provisions apply to the governing body of any “public body.”

Here are the relevant definitions.

(3) “Governing body” means the members of any public body which consists of two or more members, with the authority to make decisions for or recommendations to a public body on policy or administration.

(4) “Public body” means the state, any regional council, county, city or district, or any municipal or public corporation, or any board, department, commission, council, bureau, committee or subcommittee or advisory group or any other agency thereof.

Hawaii’s sunshine law should be amended to provide a similar provision as a safeguard against abuse of the executive session privilege.

There has been controversy over whether or when bloggers must be considered members of the news media for purposes of sitting in on executive sessions, but I didn’t have time this morning to track down the current status of this debate.

Another Big Island reporter leaves journalism

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading Tiffany Edwards Hunt’s commentary on the Hawaii County Inauguration Day doings.

She gives an insightful play-by-play on the county council’s first meeting, including hints on the new political lineups and alliances, and then gets to important stuff–staff appointments by new council members. This is the kind of nuts & bolts reporting that would be useful for understanding the Honolulu City Council.

Tiffany reports:

Peter Sur, of Hawaii Tribune Herald, is going to work as Dennis Onishi’s Council aide.

I have to compliment Onishi for choosing such a smart staffer. Peter will find life as a legislative assistant to be complementary to journalism. And, not working for Stephens Media, he won’t go home feeling like he wants to kick his dog.

And, so, with that I could segue into another story about another reporter leaving journalism for a job at the County of Hawaii.

Sur was in the middle of a labor dispute at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that started back in March 2006 when he and Dave Smith were suspended for recording a meeting with an editor, and eventually led to ruling against the newspaper’s union busting by the Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. earlier this year.

Also recommended: Joan Conrow’s comments on the Kauai County Police Commission’s decision to appeal a ruling in a case involving the relative authority of the commission and the mayor in dealing with the chief of police. The vote reversed a previous decision not to take the case any further.

Conrow explained:

The Police Commission, meanwhile, has changed its mind and decided to appeal Judge Randal Valenciano’s decision that Mayor Bernard Carvalho had the authority to suspend Chief Darryl Perry last February. I was told that two commissioners wanted to approve an appeal at the Nov. 14 meeting, when it was voted down, but were intimidated by the presence of the mayor, an ex-officio member of that panel.

Apparently, they collected their courage in the last two weeks. Charlie Iona, who had been absent from the Nov. 14 meeting due to heart surgery, added his vote to the affirmative at last Friday’s session.

The Garden Island reports that the commission will be asking the County Council for money to fund the appeal, though Corlis Chang of Goodsill Anderson Quinn and Stifel reportedly had offered to do it pro bono before the first vote was taken.

It’s unfortunate that the mayor chose to turn his disappointment about the most recent vote into a personal attack on the integrity of some commissioners: