San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (left) and his staff at City Hall are no longer doing interviews with reporters from KGO-TV Channel 7’s I-Team after it aired a story saying the city’s emergency disaster plan has serious problems. KGO I-Team producer Beth Rimbey tells the Bay Guardian that other Channel 7 reporters are getting the same treatment from city staffers. “Other reporters have shown up to do their jobs at press conferences and were told, ‘We don’t deal with Channel 7,'” Rimbey says. Newsom’s spokesman, Peter Ragone, isn’t talking to the Bay Guardian either, except through e-mail. In an e-mail, he says that the Channel 7 story was “severely flawed,” but he wouldn’t identify the alleged errors. Noyes (right), a journalist for 25 years, says many of the documents the I-Team sought last year still haven’t been provided by the city. “This is the worst example I’ve seen, ever, of public officials who refuse to give up public documents,” Noyes told the Guardian’s Hunter Jackson. By the way, Noyes, Rimbey and Ken Miguel will receive a James Madison Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California chapter, on March 16.
Channel 7 gets cold shoulder at SF City Hall
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