Can you get fired for talking to a reporter?
June 08, 2014
So, what’s it like working for the clampdown?
For the past few weeks, I’ve wanted to pose this question to my friends and contacts who work for the Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS).
Why? Because the district, via communications chief Stan Alleyne, sent out an internal email to all employees, with this subject line: “MPS Media Relations policy and procedures.” Alleyne’s email included this instruction:
I’m reaching out to ask that you direct members of the media to me or my staff when they ask you to speak as a representative of MPS. We want to ensure that all MPS personnel deliver clear, consistent and effective messages to students, parents and the general public. Remember that failure to contact the Office of Communications in advance of participation in media interviews conflicts with district policy and could lead to disciplinary action. [emphasis added]
I know, I know—the email, which includes a link to MPS Policy 1150 about “Media Relations,” is probably an innocent, justifiable warning to employees who may be tempted to speak out as representatives of MPS. If they do this, without first contacting Alleyne’s office for “story management” tips, then they can be punished. How? I am not sure. Perhaps they would be required to write “I do not represent MPS” on a chalkboard five hundred times?
Anyway, the district may have a perfectly valid reason for sending this email out, but most MPS people I talked to had no idea what that might be. Some described the email as “chilling.” Some assumed it had something to do with me (can’t imagine why), and others threw out multiple theories connected to principal searches, internal employee shuffling, lay offs, or new admin structures. It appears the possibilities are endless.
Others read through the entire email, and then clicked the link to MPS Media Relations policy. Once there, they discovered an important point to remember:
Nothing in this policy shall imply or impose restrictions on media contact with district employees or district students if such contact is initiated and completed at non-school locations and at non-district related events and the employee is not portrayed as orCan you get fired for talking to a reporter? | Twin Cities Daily Planet: