BIG BROTHER MARCHING: Cuomo pushes rule that would restrict press freedom

PRESS RELEASE AND STATEMENTS FROM THE NOVEMBER TEAM CONSULTING FIRM

big broGovernor Andrew Cuomoโ€™s Joint Commission on Public Ethics (JCOPE) sent the clearest instructions yet to New York public relations executives late Friday: Do not communicate with editorial writers. Doing so will trigger arduous JCOPE oversight.

Under JCOPEโ€™s controversial and unilaterally achieved new โ€œAdvisory Opinion,โ€ New York public relations executives who speak with editorial board writers in an attempt to influence them in behalf of a client must register as lobbyists, placing them under JCOPEโ€™s jurisdiction.

JCOPE did not address the most obvious question: How will they monitor compliance without subpoenaing the emails, phone records, Twitter, SMS, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other messages between PR officials and editorial writers? Nor did the Cuomo entity explain why newspaper editorial boards are being singled out as influencers in a multi-platform digital world.

Many editorial writers have said that JCOPEโ€™s new regulation would have a chilling effect on the free exchange of information between journalists and their sources. Others have warned that government monitoring of those exchanges would be a logical and necessary enforcement step.

Cuomo oddโ€œJCOPEโ€™s chairman Daniel J. Horwitz is apparently a bright guy: He was Bernie Madoffโ€™s attorney; so I canโ€™t figure out for the life of me why he is driving an initiative this intellectually asinine and constitutionally flawed,โ€ said Bill Oโ€™Reilly, a partner at New York communications firm The November Team (TNT). โ€œItโ€™s as though JCOPE is delivering a surgical strike against editorial boards. If Mr. Horwitz canโ€™t explain whatโ€™s really behind this initiative, perhaps his boss and patron, Governor Cuomo, can.โ€

Mr. Horwitz, a long-time and generous donor to Mr. Cuomo, was appointed to his position by the governor, and his wife, a respected public servant, serves as the $225,000-per-year President and COO of The Battery Park City Authority. Her appointment was delivered by Mr. Cuomo.

โ€œWe want to make our position crystal clear,โ€ said TNT partner Jessica Proud. โ€œWe believe that this initiative is an Andrew Cuomo overreach on steroids. We find it impossible to imagine JCOPE, a body famously criticized as feckless, launching such a clumsy attack on The First Amendment on its own. This has Andrew Cuomo written all over it.โ€

The Cuomo Administration has publicly expressed concern about this initiative, yet it has not answered a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to provide communications on this issue between itself and JCOPE. JCOPE claimed legal immunity to FOIL requests.

โ€œUnder JCOPEโ€™s ruling, PR firms will simply stop talking to editorial boards,โ€ said TNT Managing Director Jerry McKinstry, a former journalist and editorial board member. โ€œI canโ€™t imagine how thatโ€™s in any way a healthy thing in a democracy.โ€

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