“Comprehensive” Review Committee Meeting Behind Closed Doors; No Media Coverage?

From the top, here’s the commitment CHORE made in our first post on October 17: This is not a make-wrong site. We have no political motivation, no grudges, no hidden agenda. We’re not out to “get” anyone or any agency.

The issues raised here are meant to stimulate discussion leading to improved communications during and after emergencies in our community. The information flow after the October 15 earthquakes fell far short of what’s needed to safeguard lives and property. That’s CHORE’s opinion, and it seems to be shared by many others.

Surprise: The Committee’s Already Meeting

With that as preamble, we find it surprising the State’s so-called Comprehensive Communications Review Committee already has had one meeting this week. What’s surprising is that the meeting went unnoticed by the local media.

Another meeting is underway as this post is being written, according to the following invitation received by a Honolulu media outlet to attend today’s session:

"On behalf of Governor Linda Lingle and Lenny Klompus, chair, Governor's Comprehensive Communications Review, we would like to extend an invitation for two journalists from your news outlet to participate in a meeting on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. in the Governor's Conference Room (State Capitol, 5th floor).

"The purpose of this meeting is to hear from journalists who were working to provide important information to the public in the hours immediately following the Oct. 15 earthquake. This includes challenges new outlets may have faced in obtaining and disseminating accurate information, as well as operating with minimal power and communications capabilities.

"We suggest you send one reporter who was "in the field" and one reporter/editor who was in the newsroom.

"This session will build on a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 24 with the owners/general managers/publishers of Hawai`i's major news outlets, wireless service providers and Civil Defense agencies."

Senior media personnel apparently attended Tuesday’s meeting, yet we’ve found no reporting about it. Was no news made in the meeting? That’s hard to imagine in light of the issues presumably being discussed. Do ground rules prohibit coverage? Again, that seems incomprehensible.

You have to wonder why something as important as this committee’s after-earthquake assessment is being conducted behind closed doors, with no discernable reporting to the public about what’s happening inside.

Striving for Credibility

Whatever’s going on in this series of committee meetings, one would think its organizers would want to avoid any question about the credibility of its findings.

CHORE wrote on October 18 that the public surely needs to be represented on this committee. It’s not enough for discussions to be tightly held among government officials and media representatives, all of whom are in business to serve the public. The public should be there.

CHORE’s other suggestion – that the committee be chaired by an independent community-based person without connection to the State Administration – hasn’t gotten anywhere either. Will the committee’s final report be as frank about State Civil Defense’s performance under the panel's current leadership as it might be with an independent chair?

Again, this has nothing personally to do with the individual who’s filling the role. But if credibility were important, appointing someone with no ties to the Administration would have seemed like an obvious choice.