It’s one thing to read a description: “Pushing, shoving and a finger in the face.”
It’s quite another thing to see it.
In the photo, KRQE’s Larry Barker confronts Nora Sackett, press secretary for the Office of the Governor — her back is against a wall, his finger is in her face.
This is unacceptable.
Journalists and public information officers naturally butt heads in the name of protecting different interests. However, decency and respect during any interaction between the two is of utmost importance.
This week the trial began for the man who killed five people in the Capital Gazette newspaper. Over the past year we have seen numerous assaults on journalists who were simply doing their jobs covering protests. Actions like Barker’s are not only reprehensible, they endanger all of us at a time when we already face numerous threats while we try to bring important news to the public.
The Society of Professional Journalists, Rio Grande Chapter calls for both KRQE and Barker to address the situation publicly and offer an apology to Sackett.
Yesterday, Andy Lyman, an Albuquerque-based reporter, tweeted about seeing a “high-profile TV personality” all but physically assault an elected official and one of their staff members.
Lyman was gracious and did not name names, but summed up his observations with, “It was gross.”
Very quickly, on Thursday, July 1, a photo of the encounter between Barker and Sackett surfaced on Twitter, in a quote tweet of Sackett’s thread laying out her thoughts on her interaction with Barker. She also was polite and didn’t name names aside from a mention of the news organization that employs Barker.
After seeing the photo and reading the accounts of Barker’s confrontation of Sackett, we, as members of the Society of Professional Journalists and the New Mexico journalism community, were appalled. No person, especially a journalist, should treat another human being the way Barker treated Sackett.
However frustrated, angry and just plain pissed off we get at each other, it is never, ever, ever — let us repeat — EVER even remotely acceptable to physically corner a source, no matter how important we think it may be.
From Lyman’s report, it sounds like the altercation between Barker and Sackett got physical — pushing and shoving. The photo shows Barker’s face a bare 12 inches away from Sackett’s and his finger even closer.
It is actions like those displayed by Barker that give our community a bad name and jeopardize our reputation. We are ashamed that a long-time New Mexico journalist would resort to such means as physical confrontation, no matter the situation at hand.
