Muzzling the media: O the Irony

Sen. Leahy Says AP Letter Makes Graff Firing 'More Difficult' to Accept

By Joe Strupp
Published: May 03, 2006 5:15 PM ET

NEW YORK Responding to today's disclosure that former Vermont Associated Press bureau chief Chris Graff was fired recently for distributing an opinion column by Sen. Patrick Leahy, the senator released a statement sharply criticizing the news organization and calling the move "amazing."

Graff, fired March 20 after 27 years in the bureau, released today a letter he received from AP's regional bureau chief on that date informing him of the termination. He had previously withheld the explanation for his dismissal, but revealed the reason after striking a severance agreement with AP last week.

The letter indicates that Graff was fired for distributing Leahy's column on March 8, which advocated the annual Sunshine Week and mirrored a column he had distributed a year earlier as well.

Backstory
The column is from March and from Seven Days, an alt-paper in Vermont:

"According to sources in the Vermont media, the item was a column written by Vermont Democratic U.S. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy. The subject was the growing threat to our democracy by infringements imposed by the Bush administration on America's hallowed Freedom of information Act. It was submitted for possible publication by the "Sunshine in Government Initiative" of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Sources say the Leahy column moved on the Vermont AP wire on Wednesday, March 8, as part of a "Sunshine Sunday" preview package. Also in the Sunday package was a feature on Gov. Douglas' attempt to bar access to public records by invoking the "deliberative process privilege." Sunday kicked off "Sunshine Week." Open government was a national theme
raised by many news outlets coast to coast.

But shortly after the AP Sunshine package moved on the Vermont wire, an unidentified AP editor up the food chain abruptly yanked it. Vermont AP clients were notified it was being withdrawn. Here's what went out on the wire:

BULLETIN ELIMINATION Advisory

The Associated Press

Editors:

The Sunshine Week column by Sen. Patrick Leahy, sent without a dateline in advance
March 8 for use in Sunday newspapers of March 12, has been eliminated. The material
should not have moved on the wire. No sub will be filed.

The AP.

Sources say the objection was over moving an item written by a "partisan politician"
without including a rebuttal from a partisan politician of a different stripe.