CHEYENNE — The Trump White House ban on three major news organizations raises the question:
Can it happen here?
Well, of course it can, but it hasn’t.
Wyoming governors of both major political parties may have been incensed by what they considered to be negative coverage.
But, beyond a heated phone call to a publisher, their ire has never extended as far as to ban reporters from the governor’s office or the Capitol Building,
They were smarter than that.
But, the governors were not facing a pool of aggressive reporters like those that operate in the nation's capital.
In comparison, Wyoming’s press corps consisted largely of a bunch of polite introverts.
Even so, an occasional critical story could make a chief execute seethe.
Gov. Ed Herschler was the chief executive in recent history who had the most difficult relationship with the press.
During an impromptu news conference before he took office, the Kemmerer attorney, a Democrat and former legislator, was angry because of news stories speculating on his appointments to key government offices.
The Casper Star Tribune (my employer at the time) and the Wyoming Tribune (later to become the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle) were the culprits.
It was easy to identify the prospects who met with Herschler in a vacated room at the west end of the first floor in the Capitol Building, where they could be seen going in and coming out.
(It should be pointed out that thereafter, all interim offices of a to-be governor were in some place off limits to reporters.)
After outlining his objections to the news coverage, he said,
“Tell your editors that if they want war, they will have it.”
Later, Jim Flinchum, the editor of the Wyoming Tribune, a Republican paper, said he thought Herschler was accustomed to soft, unchallenged coverage from local papers, and that was why he was so upset.
There was no war, of course. Relations were cool but less hostile, until later, when a grand jury he called was investigating claims of illegal activities in Rock Springs.
That’s when the questioning and the publicity got heavier. The CBS television show “60 Minutes” came, and so did the Denver Post.
That was also when he issued his threat to ban reporters who wrote stories he did not like from the governor’s office.
He called them “persona non grata”— Latin for unwelcome.
A TV reporter was identified as “persona non grata” for a brief period.
I was threatened with the label, but that was as far as it went.
His aides convinced him to back off
Herschler went on to serve three four-year terms as governor, demonstrating that his strained relations with the news media did not hurt him with voters.
Herschler’s predecessor, the Republican lawyer from Torrington Stan Hathaway, had an explosive temper.
As a newbie, Hathaway treated me very well in press conferences, and an occasional short interview.
At that time, the five elected state officials had much more power than they do today.
It also was a time when their state state board meetings were closed to the press.
The only way to get any information about those meetings was from the chairman, the governor.
So, of course, that news was well filtered.
One time though, I had a tip that there had been a giant verbal fight between Hathaway and a pro environment attorney from Jackson.
Apparently it was over Hathaway’s program to attract industrial development and the concessions offered.
I was unable to contact the attorney, so I turned to the governor’s office.
The first thing Hathaway did was close both doors leading to outer offices.
Then he exploded. He postulated what the headline would be regarding his dust-up with the Jackson attorney.
And he talked of the the state’s desperate need for business and industry to bring in money.
I told my editor later, who calmed him down.
Other than that outburst, my coverage or the Hathaway administration was without friction or animosity.
Nor was it difficult in the administrations that followed, Republican and Democratic.
The elected officials became accustomed to open meetings, although I’m sure they never did like the idea.
They surely would not like it today with technology like Zoom making meetings available to everyone with a computer.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
