Oneidas ban Post-Standard employees

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Jul 05, 2002 by Kropf, Annemarie

citing three recent stories found in the paper, the Oneida Indian Nation has banned employees of The Post-Standard in Syracuse, from entering Oneida land.

"It's a pattern of behavior of being deliberately negative," says Mark Emery, director of media relations at Oneida Indian Nation. The Nation employs approximately 3,200 people.

The Oneida Indian Nation released a two-page statement on June 28 to explain why it was taking such action. "The Nation is disappointed that The PostStandard has so little regard for the Oneida people and for the newspaper's own readers that it would deliberately slant its news coverage toward the negative," the statement reads, "This is not about one story being poorly reported, or even a couple. This is about a pattern of behavior by one reporter and The PostStandard's news managers' unwillingness to address this behavior."

Michael J. Connor, executive editor at The Post-Standard, says that none of the stories was challenged on accuracy.

The newspaper has a daily circulation of nearly 132,000. Jeff Barber, circulation director at The Post-Standard, says that the paper is primarily sold in four counties: Onondaga, Oswego, Cayuga, and Madison. He adds that it is also sold at properties owned by the Oneida Nation. Barber says that as far as he knows, that is still in effect.

"All we know is what they told us," Connor says. "Three recent stories by our Oneida Nation reporter were too negative in their opinion. We disagree on that."

The "behavior" in question stems from three stories written by Glenn Coin in May and June of this year. "They were all positive stories but there were parts in them that were negative," Emery says. "They didn't need to be in there."

On May 14, Coin wrote a story about the Nation's plans to build two worldclass golf courses. In the story, he quoted the architectural editor of Golf Digest on the cost of playing at these courses. Emery says he doesn't understand why an architectural editor was consulted on a marketing issue.

"Our reporter called Golf Digest and asked to be put in touch with the person best qualified to comment," explains Connor. "What else is a reporter to do?" He gave Emery this reason, to which Emery responded that it wasn't the appropriate person, Connor says. "Basically, he's frustrated that he's not editing the paper," Connor adds.

The other two stories involved the Nation's bingo hall and the showroom at the Turning Stone Casino Resort. "In each instance, Mr. Coin managed to take very positive news, and manufacture a negative focus," the statement reads. "This is not a complaint about balanced reporting, or telling both sides of a story. It is about Mr. Coin seeming to have an anti-Nation agenda and The Post-Standards news managers not sorting that bias out of its news columns."

Connor says that The Post-Standard does not have an anti-Nation agenda. "I think if any reasonable reader looks at the body of work we've done on the Oneida Nation, they'd see it's quite balanced," he asserts.

After the third article was published, Emery and another Nation representative met with editors at the newspaper, Emery says. They asked that a different reporter cover the Oneida Nation, but The Post-Standard sent Coin to cover the next story.

"it was only after that instance that the Nation decided to simply not respond to inquiries from any reporter from The PostStandard," the statement reads.

Along with receiving a "no comment" response to their inquiries, Post-Standard employees are banned from Nation territory, which includes the Turning Stone Casino Resort. "The most important thing here is that we've had problems [with The Post-Standard] before," Emery says. "We deal with reporters statewide and we have no problems with others."

The Post-Standard has been banned from Oneida territory at least two times before this, Connor says. He adds that he believes the issue will be resolved. "The Oneidas will realize that not participating in the open exchange of ideas reflects poorly on them," he notes. "It inhibits their story being told, and they've got quite a story to tell."

Emery says that banning The PostStandard won't be detrimental to the Nation.

"I think people get their news from a lot of sources," he says. He adds that anyone interested can visit the Oneidas' Web site at www.oneidanews.net.

Emery rejects the idea that the Nation is trying to use The Post-Standard as a publie-relations vehicle. "They certainly never have been," he says. "Balanced coverage is all we ask for." He defines a balanced story as having fair coverage and good reporting. "If [a story] starts out positive, follow the story line," he says. He adds that reporters shouldn't deliberately make a story negative.

"A story that has all sides represented is obviously more balanced," Connor retorts. "We won't stop writing about the Oneidas. We'll have to do our reporting as best as we can and contact them each time."