Kyron Horman’s Family Boots WW and The Oregonian from Bizarre News Event
1:04 PM July 1st, 2010 by James Pitkin
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2010/07/01/kyron-hormans-family-boots-ww-and-the-oregonian/
First came Horman’s “ground rules,” as he described them. No cameras. No recordings. Everything was off the record and couldn’t be reported, unless agreed otherwise. Horman made everyone in the room agree to these rules before proceeding. And so this roomful of reporters consented, in essence, not to be reporters.
Horman then laid out how the meeting would go. They would take questions, make some phone calls (presumably to investigators, to find out what they could say in their answers), then return and make an on-the-record statement. But first, Horman wanted all the reporters he didn’t know to introduce themselves.
KEX radio, KATU, The Portland Tribune and “Inside Edition” all got the nod from Horman. But then came Shane Kavanaugh and Bryan Denson of The Oregonian.
Horman said the family didn’t like The Oregonian’s coverage and wanted them to leave. Horman said the daily had failed to be a “team player.”
snip
I introduced myself and said I’m with Willamette Week. Horman said the family has the same problem with WW. I agreed to leave. And so the paper with the second-biggest circulation in Oregon was also kicked out.
As far as I was concerned, after getting kicked out all deals were off. I wasn’t going to keep the meeting off the record.
According to a reporter who stayed, the family went on to lay out more “ground rules” for the future. They said they’d hold these “news conferences” (if you can call them that) twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, as time allows. They would make prepared statements, answer some questions submitted in writing and may also do occasional interviews.