By: Diane Benjamin
FYI: The Vote Yes people committed more electioneering at ISU on Tuesday. Of course no prosecutions will happen, they were eventually kicked out by the election judges. Winning is all that matters to the left, breaking laws or lying is immaterial. Keep reading for proof.
This is what happened, I hope Cities 92.9 FOIA’d the police bodycam:
Keep in mind WGLT’s Ryan Denham thinks he can decide who is media and who isn’t. The Supreme Court disagrees, but government media doesn’t care.
Denham denied Press Credentials for the Edgar County Watchdogs at the McLean County Courthouse, they went over his head to the Chief Judge Casey Costigan and got press credentials. I hope Costigan informed Denham and WGLT about the Supreme Court ruling. If he did Denham and WGLT didn’t listen.
John Kraft of the Edgar County Watchdogs filed a FOIA request with ISU, the results prove WGLT was only protecting Danenberger from being exposed by kicking Kevin Phares out of this Open House. Real questions aren’t allowed at WGLT event.
This was the FOIA:
1. Copy of the any policies governing political candidate forums or meet the candidate events held on University property or by University/WGLT personnel.
2. Copy of any policy describing the process of obtaining media credentials for University/WGLT events or for political candidate forums,
3. Copy of all advertisements or literature for political candidate forums, which also include a requirement of obtaining a media credential for attendance or for asking questions, held during the month of March 2023.
4. Copy of any policy permitting any University or WGLT representative to have or cause any police agency or officer to remove a student and radio intern from these events.
5. Copy of all media credentials issued for or used at these events, and copies of sign-in or attendance records for these events in March 2023.
This was ISU’s response:
Your request is granted in part and denied in part.
In response to request 1, there are no documents responsive to this request.
In response to request 2, please see the attached document.
In response to request 3, there are no documents responsive to this request.
In response to request 4, guidelines for planning an event at the Bone Student Center can be found on the following University website: Scheduling an Event | Bone Student Center – Illinois State
In response to request 5, there are no documents responsive to this request.
ISU has no policies and they had no media sign-in to this event even though other media covered the event. WGLT threw Kevin Phares out of the event merely for wanting to ask questions Danenberger didn’t want to answer.
Below is the document referenced in 2. Note it was sent by the local government run media. RC McBride owes Kevin Phares and the voters of Ward 4 an apology. Obviously hiding information from voters about Danenberger means WGLT is Fake News. WGLT and ISU discriminated against ISU student Kevin Phares, he was denied his 1st Amendment right to simply ask questions as a member of the press. WGLT committed election interference.
So much for giving up writing lol
Cleaning up loose ends or . . .
WGLT is City Government run media. They are not real media.
Neither is Cities 92.9.
Try to be more accurate by admitting you don’t listen
I don’t listen….to either of them.
Cities is like FoxNews, some media and some opinion. Peterson, Blumenshine, Woodard are the opinion side. That doesn’t mean they haven’t reported news, but some of their articles are so far slanted that you can’t defend those pieces as just news. That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be afforded opportunities of media but not everything they do is non-partisan reporting. The same can easily be said about WGLT.
Cities 92.9 took a huge hit losing Steve Suess. He was the best they had.
I have to wonder if Peterson believes half of what she says and she is somewhere between her Cities show and her reporting on 99.5.
I heard they didn’t receive the McBride memo.
Just to be clear, I think you should have press credentials, that what happened to Phares was wrong, and that they were trying to protect Danenberger. If folks found out what he is really like, many may have chosen a different option.
That being said, the style of a lot of Cities staff is not going to convince people of their cause or ideas beyond their base of support.
Doesn’t natter
WGLT is real, they are accurate and when they make a mistake they are quick to correct it.
Compare government reporting to others. What the leave out speaks volumes
The Democrats control WGLT, League of Women’s Voters, NAACP, ISU, and the Normal Police Department. There is no way any of them would have allowed something to happen at this event that could hurt the chances of one of their candidates winning.
This has the hallmarks of a 15 USC 1983 cause of action against WGLT, ISU, the Normal Police Dept, and McBride for denial of Kevin Phares’ First Amendment rights. Maybe he should talk to a lawyer?
Not going to find one locally
If this was at the Bone it was likely the University police that responded, not the city police.
No body cam
Apologies this it out of place, but I posted something similar Twice under the previous post Eleven Years and it never showed. Not sure if Diane didn’t approve it out of false modesty or it got auto deleted because of the link I included or some key words I’m leaving out of this version…
Those of you who want Diane to keep covering local politics need to remember that she’s doing this for free other than whatever she gets in donations. I have an obvious excuse for being overdue in my latest contribution, but now would be a good time for all of us to show our appreciation by following the appropriate link found at the top of every article!
Kevin Phares literally said he’s not with any media or Cities, he said he was there as a student doing reporting for his YouTube channel. He also doesn’t have media credentials. so..it sounds more like he wasn’t identifying with Cities and even if he was that he didn’t obtain media credentials, so I’m not sure why you’re writing this as he is some big victim. Perhaps you could write the truth.
Maybe you could report the truth. He has video.
Open House means don’t ask questions. Brilliant