Maine Governor Bars Staff From Talking To Three State Newspapers
Maine Governor Paul LePage, already facing the prospect of a rough re-election fight in 2014, is barring his staff from talking to three newspapers in the state:
AUGUSTA – Gov. Paul LePage’s administration will no longer comment in stories published by the Portland Press Herald, the Kennebec Journal and the Morning Sentinel, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The new policy follows the newspapers’ publication of a three-day series of articles this week examining LePage’s top environmental regulator and how her department’s actions have benefited her former lobbying clients in private industry.
LePage’s spokeswoman, Adrienne Bennett, informed a Press Herald reporter of the new policy following a request for the governor’s public events calendar. Bennett would not provide the calendar, a public document, and said the administration would no longer participate in stories reported by the three newspapers.
Bennett said MaineToday Media, the newspapers’ parent company, “had made it clear that it opposed this administration.”
She would not elaborate, saying that responses from the administration could be gleaned from reports by The Associated Press or through document requests using the Freedom of Access Act.
A little touchy there are we, Governor Le Page?
I frequently see GOPs complaining that news stories about corruption always prominently mention the party affiliation of Rs and never mention the affiliation of Ds. As neither Doug nor the linked Portland Press Herald article mention it, perhaps I should note that Gov. LePage is an R.
Why just 3 weeks ago – May 29th – Governor LePage was weighing in on free speech, albeit in a different circumstance, nonetheless: