NOISE Barred From Governor’s News Conferences Raising First Amendment Red Flags

By Anuska Dhar

Governor Ricketts’ office has barred NOISE and interim managing editor, Emily Chen-Newton, from entry to the governor’s news briefings and from asking questions to the governor himself. Chen-Newton went to the capitol building in person on Wednesday, March 31, requesting to be let into the press conference or to speak to Taylor Gage, Director of the Governor’s Strategic Communications team. Gage claimed that because NOISE is not “considered credentialed media” Chen-Newton was not allowed to ask questions of the governor. “She won’t be admitted,” Gage said, addressing the security guard. 

Emily Chen-Newton first initiated contact via email with the governor’s office in July of 2020 with questions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. None of her questions were answered via email or asked during the Governor’s briefings. She drove to the capital in March after multiple emails beginning in February of this year inquiring about the office’s process or criteria for the press were ignored. Not being allowed into that day’s press conference, Chen-Newton was allowed to wait in the reception room while the conference was carried out behind a closed door. She waited for the entirety of the conference to speak with Gage about their “credentialing process”, only to be informed an hour later that Gage would not speak to her. 

Moments later she approached Gage in a hallway of the state’s capitol building where he told her that she could send an email with her concerns, and shut the office door as Chen-Newton stood in the hallway. Later reflecting on that moment, she recalls the irony of the example that was being set in a building that has the words, “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness in the Citizen” etched in stone over its main entrance (written by Hartley Burr Alexander). “And there was something poignant about having a group of elementary school students within earshot of this whole scene,” she says.

As reported by the Omaha World-Herald, the following Friday, Taylor Gage commented in a statement, “NOISE is an advocacy organization funded by liberal donors” and thus would not be “credentialed” as a media organization. In response, the Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star published a joint editorial  Wednesday, April 14, standing in support of NOISE, explaining that the ban is in violation of First Amendment rights and a thinly veiled political move. 

“The Ricketts administration’s denial of credentials to NOISE must be seen for what it is: politics, pure and simple.”

- Omaha World Herald and Lincoln Journal Stars joint statement

The editorial further elaborates that Gage, “acknowledges that the ban ‘has nothing to do with the issues they’re covering.’ He said the problem is evident in the organization’s name and ‘how they position themselves.’” The name “NOISE” stands for North Omaha Information Support Everyone, and as State Senator Machaela Cavanaugh made clear when speaking on this issue, “‘North Omaha’ is our coded language for Black Omaha...and we are currently turning away their digital media outlet.”

NOISE is dedicated to “community-based journalism that provides useful information and holds representatives and systems accountable to the people they serve”. Founded roughly three years ago by Dawaune Lamont Hayes, NOISE is an online publication supported by the American Journalism Project and is a member of the Institute for Nonprofit News. Donations are not accepted “from sources who, deemed by our advisory committee, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.” 

When asked by NOISE, reporters from other news outlets like John Kipper of KMTV said they didn’t have issues corresponding with the Governor’s office. “I’ve never been asked to show my badge,” said John Kipper. Jim Vokal, of the Platte Institute, confirmed that the institute has no issues getting questions answered via email or phone. Governor Ricketts has joined in virtual events hosted by the Platte Institute. None of the news outlets or reporters who NOISE spoke to were able to identify any particular process for obtaining media access to the governor’s office.

Since this incident, NOISE has not received any written documentation of the formal policy outlining how media access is determined by the Governor’s office. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said in a statement that they are closely monitoring this situation which '“raises serious First Amendment concerns”.

You can read the full editorial from the Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star here.