By: Diane Benjamin
Some time around 2017 the rules changed at the Law and Justice Center for taking electronic devices inside the building. The head Circuit Court judge appointed a member of the media to approve press credentials so they could take in cameras, cell phones etc. The first press coordinator was Edith Brady-Lunny who at the time worked for the Pantagraph.
I’m betting she contacted all the preferred press and approved credentials for them. I was not contacted and had no idea the program even existed. I was accused years ago of violating rules I didn’t know existed, taking pictures.
The Edgar County Watchdogs applied for press credentials for themselves and me as one of their associates. Even though the Watchdogs have credentials in many Illinois counties, Lunny denied them credentials here.
Edith is no longer the press coordinator because she left the Pantagraph. She is now an employee of WGLT, a new press coordinator has been named – also from WGLT: Ryan Denham.
Without press credentials I can’t spend hours listening to testimony – I can’t disconnect from the outside world for that long. Meanwhile, no other press was present at the Justin Barr case but many of them reported details after I did. When John Butler finally goes on trial I won’t be able to cover it. Keep in mind if I hadn’t exposed shenanigans for years at the Coliseum he wouldn’t be on trial. (Regardless of what Bloomington claims!)
WGLT is the press being used by the Town of Normal to attack Stan Nord. We know WGLT did a hit piece and refused to say where their information came from: https://blnnews.com/2020/02/21/remember-the-letter-leaked-to-wglt-about-stan/
This week I decided to test Ryan Denham just to see how biased he is. I sent this email:
This was his response:
I responded with this two days ago:
No surprise, he didn’t answer.
I know the local press hates BlnNews. Many local officials hate BlnNews because of the many items exposed here.
What both really hate is informed readers.
That would be you. Denying press credentials to me as BlnNews is just the latest proof.
It appears I have no recourse. Congrats Ryan Denham, you failed the biased test, just like your predecessor.
If you have nothing to hide, you hide nothing. Why not apply directly to a judge and see if he/she is also biased? I would keep trying.
“I’m going to stick with that decision.” What a putz!
I would cite, to the chief judge, all the articles where he talks about you and this news site. He cannot make this decision himself, as he has shown bias against you.
There is no appeal process. Where is the ACLU?
There is no Formal appeal process. As schmalshof indicated, perhaps a letter to the judge would be a first step. From there, one could certainly file a 1st Amendment lawsuit and/or try to make more a PR stink about it, but all of the above are our call…
Thanks again for being one of the last few true journalists around!
WJBC Is actually much better now that the biased voices of authoritarian government have fled to Pravda Broadcasting at WGLT.
One of their news people said on the air that bloggers should be trained journalists. Obviously that person doesn’t understand why they exist.
While citizen journalists around the world are doing the “real” journalism and putting the mainstream media out-of-business, the trained journalists think citizens are “unqualified” to do what they are already doing very well.
News flash “trained journalists”: Get your resumes tuned up…. your days creating highly politicized lies and leftist narratives are nearly over. We can take it from here….
Ryan Denham is an establishment tool. See his twitter feed here: @ryanWGLT He is a creator and mover of leftist narratives. According to his twitter profile he is: Digital Content Director at @WGLTNews, an @NPR member station at Illinois State University.
He is not going to do anything to jeopardize his non-profit (easy) highly paid job at WGLT Fake News. Yes, he is just another socialist leftist train engineer who will dutifully keep the trains running on time no matter how wrong it is.
We have a NEW player in town “Lying Ryan”
It’s SAD that SO MANY courthouses have “86’d” cell phones and cameras, so that the “stunts” that they pull CANNOT be reported on. The term JUSTICE FOR ALL has basically become a lost phrase..
Some of us take honesty seriously when reciting pledges. “…with liberty and justice for some.”
I am going to separate myself in this comment from who and who does not get access as determined by Denham and just make observations.
1) This should not be determined by a member of the media as to who is allowed access.
2) A member of the media determining who gets access is a conflict of interest. What better way to control the news gathering capability of a competitor by not allowing them access.
3) Having been involved in sports broadcasts for many years I know in order to get credentials one applies to the event host for such. Example: to get press access to the ihsa state tourney one requests passes from the ihsa.
4) This is an example of the lazy public servants we have. They need to do their job and handle this. Do we not have people who handle the daily court schedules, activities and other rules as to court conduct that should be handling this?
Local government here is a joke….the people who aid and abet such are worse.
As a tax paying citizen of this county you have every right to observe the trials at the Law and Justice center, since the building is on county grounds. They cannot deny this. And if they do they have a lot of problems.
I can go, I just can’t go with the privileges given to the preferred press.
Anyone can still go. But nobody can record anything electronically. No voice or video or pictures or even typed notes. Maybe she saw a family judge casually destroy a father’s relationship with his children out of spite at the father daring to disagree with the judge. If she reported that incident it would be purely he-said-she-said. Most people would believe whatever excuse the judge came up with. But even easier for them if they know people can’t bring forth damning evidence – Most people won’t waste their time complaining in the first place.
Here’s a great solution. How about everyone that doesn’t contribute every month start doing so. Maybe you’d have enough to hire that lawyer to sue for infringement on your 1st amendment rights. Please contribute if you already don’t. You’re not going to get a better and truthful account anywhere else.
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