[ OUR OPINION ]
Lies to media tarnished
Lingle’s credibilitySECRECY surrounding public affairs is something the media abhor, but have been known to tolerate in unusual circumstances. Dishonesty aimed at ensuring secrecy, however, is never acceptable. So it was especially surprising when such lies emanated this week from the office of Governor Lingle, who once edited a small newspaper on Molokai. When she returns from her visit to Iraq, Lingle will face a tough challenge in trying to restore trust that has quickly eroded.
THE ISSUE
Six governors kept their plans confidential as they prepared for a trip to Iraq arranged by the Department of Defense.
Security concerns required that plans for the trip of Lingle and five other governors to Iraq be highly confidential. Only a few people in the governors' offices were made aware of the plans, and they were tight-lipped, leaving many capitol reporters in the dark.
But Russell Pang, Lingle's media relations chief, went one step further. He told the Associated Press on Monday, three days after Lingle had departed, "She's around here, working on several things." On the same day a media advisory was issued that said Lingle would attend a wreath-laying ceremony Tuesday with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Not true.
Pang said the whoppers were intended "to prevent any leaks, to ensure the safety and security of the governors and not jeopardize the trip." That explanation is unacceptable. Pang, whose background is in public relations, should have known how to keep his boss's activities confidential without resorting to fabrication.
Each of the governors was allowed to invite one news reporter on the trip, but even that process was undertaken with care. Before Idaho Gov. Dick Kempthorne, who led the delegation, invited a reporter from The Idaho Statesman, he first made Executive Editor Carolyn Washburn promise to keep the forthcoming information confidential.
"Something significant was happening, and I decided it was better to know what was going on," Washburn explained on the newspaper's Web site. "If it was something that I felt uncomfortable keeping secret, I would be able to find a way to negotiate and deal with the information appropriately." After receiving the information, she decided the security reasons were legitimate. Washburn agreed to assign a reporter to the trip, stipulating only that the newspaper pay its own way.
Similar considerations probably were attached to media invitations in other states. Oregon's governor chose a reporter from The Oregonian, the Louisiana governor picked the dean of the Capitol press corps and Minnesota's governor had that state's House chaplain draw from a hat to select from five television stations.
Perhaps remembering the fuss surrounding KITV-4's state-funded junket with her to Japan last summer -- the station later agreed to pay its own way -- Lingle chose not to invite any Hawaii reporter to accompany the governors to Iraq. That's fine, because of the unusual media competition here. The AP bureau in Minnesota, an ideal pool representative, turned down the offer and the Hawaii bureau may have done the same.
