MASHANTUCKET, Conn. ? Do American Indian issues get fair coverage in the mainstream press?
Former BIA chief Kevin Gover and some of his harshest critics tried to answer the question at the recent annual meeting of the New England Society of Newspaper Editors, in a forum at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center.
For the press, however, the most significant news was that the opposite sides could actually meet politely and agree on some points.
Gover and his frequent opponent Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal captured local headlines by lining up in support of an independent commission to take over tribal recognition decisions from the overwhelmed BIA.
Blumenthal in fact suggested that the lead for coverage of the panel should be that he and Gover agreed. But in focusing on a position long held by both men, the press ignored trenchant criticisms of its own conduct.
“In spite of your editorializing, you have no influence on policy decisions in Washington,” Gover told an audience comprised of the region’s senior newspaper editors. “Back in D.C. they know the coverage is not good. You’re not having an impact because you’re not doing a very good job of it.”
Gover complained politely but firmly that the press habitually reported untrue charges against him and other Indian officials without trying to find out if they were justified or not. Stories consist of people “popping off,” but their statements aren’t analyzed, he said. “I ask reporters when they run them, ‘Why didn’t you challenge that.’ They reply, ‘I didn’t say it was true, I was just reporting what they said.’
“If your standard is not that it’s true but that somebody said it, then you meet that standard. I suggest that that’s not a good enough standard.”
On the other side, a leading opponent of neighboring tribes criticized the press for letting politicians off the hook. Robert Congdon, first selectman of Preston, said he has spent eight years and $1 million of his taxpayers’ money to fight expansion of the Mashantucket Pequot reservation and federal recognition of the Eastern Pequot and Paucatuck Eastern Pequot tribes.
“You know where I stand on the issues,” he said.
But he said the press, “does a poor job on Gov. (John) Rowland. Where does he stand on annexation, on the Settlement Act?”
Rowland, a Republican heading into a re-election campaign, has cultivated ties with the Mashantucket Pequots, owners of the Foxwoods Casino Resort.
Congdon also said the press allowed politicians to create “the illusion of action,” reporting on their releases about bills they introduced but failing to ask whatever happened to the measures.
Policy analyst Jonathan Taylor, disagreeing with both Gover and Congdon, said press reporting was having significant impact, for good or ill. Because of the highly publicized local controversies, “The New England tribes are exerting disproportionate influence on national Indian policy.
“The success of a few Indian tribes has made them lightning rods,” he said. “Articles from New England papers are cited in national policy debate and lead to calls for reform even when the need for reform is not indicated.”
Taylor, a strong advocate of tribal sovereignty who has conducted several studies on the positive economic impact of tribal casinos, called for greater economic sophistication in reporting on topics such as management contracts. He urged editors to deepen their reporting and “embrace complexity,” by turning to independent, third parties to analyze the issues.
“You can take it to a level where passions are cooler.”
As soon as Taylor sat down, Sean Murphy of the Boston Globe, one of the most controversial writers on Indian gaming, stood up to say, “I’m not going to read a long, tedious academic paper.” Taking the discussion back to the personal level, he recounted the conflicts surrounding his investigative style of writing. He complained that colleagues in the press were quick to attack his work and reluctant to give him credit when they cited it.
Murphy dwelt at length on the “chair incident,” celebrated in the gossip columns of Indianz.com and the Boston Herald. While covering a Congressional hearing on Indian gaming, he said he left the room and found on his return that someone had occupied his chair. He complained loudly as the new occupant, reportedly the son of a Southwest tribal leader ignored him. The scene drew amused comments from one of the senators on the committee.
Murphy explained to editors that he thought a fellow journalist had taken his seat.
“If I had realized it was a member of the general public, I wouldn’t have complained.”
In general, however, the audience seemed impressed by the tenor of the panel.
Photographers snapped Gover and Blumenthal shaking hands briefly after the session. The civility reached an even higher level at the subsequent luncheon. Gover, Congdon and Murphy sat at the same table and chatted amiably while eating quahog clams and buffalo burgers.
Picking up on a stray comment from Gover, Murphy said he would write in his next article that the frequent target of his reports had said, “Sean, I agree with you.”
