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January 11, 2021
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We start 2021 with a COVID vaccine, but the rollout has been slower than planned and a coordinated public health communication effort is needed to convince people to get vaccinated. Public opinion research shows a number of challenges: some people are justifiably skeptical of “big Pharma” and government; others are actively working to spread disinformation about the vaccine; and many remain unconvinced of the vaccine’s safety. What is being done to overcome these challenges, how can communicators be most effective, and how can reporters best cover the vaccination story and combat the disinformation? 

Join the National Press Club Journalism Institute and the National Press Club Communicators Committee for a candid conversation on the COVID vaccine: Communication challenges for public health efforts & reporters. Registration is now open for this program, which will take place from 12-1 p.m. EST on Wednesday, January 13, 2021.

The panel will feature Jesse Holland, Assistant Professor of Journalism at George Washington University, author, scholar and African American history expert; Nick Sugai, Vice President at the Ad Council, which is leading a national public education campaign to encourage vaccination; Susan Winckler, CEO of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration, who will share public opinion research on the vaccination. The conversation will be moderated by Alison Fitzgerald Kodjak, Investigations Editor at The Associated Press, and the 112th president of the National Press Club.
Why were the Capitol Police so unprepared on January 6?
 
As journalists unpack the Capitol Police’s response to the mob, a long-standing roadblock persists: The department is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.   

Chris Marquette is an ethics and accountability reporter at CQ Roll Call who covers the Capitol Police and explains different avenues of access to the department and what types of documents journalists should request from law enforcement.

Can you provide some context about why the Capitol Police are not subject to FOIA requests? 

Marquette: The Capitol Police as part of the Legislative Branch is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. So if a journalist asks for records of police misconduct or inspector general reports, a lot of basic fundamental questions go unanswered. They’re just not required under the law to comply. 

Have you ever tried to FOIA the Capitol Police? What happened?

Marquette: I went through this process back in May when I was trying to find their inspector general reports and I’d had no luck getting it from congressional committees with oversight of the Capitol Police. I finally said, hey, let me try to FOIA them. Then when I tried to FOIA them for inspector general reports dating back to 2015, James W. Joyce, the senior counsel for the Capitol Police, said that they don’t need to complete the document or request. What they said was: “Please be advised that the United States Capitol Police, as a legislative branch entity, is not an ‘agency’ as defined by 5 U.S.C. §§ 551 et seq., under the Freedom of Information Act. Therefore, the USCP is not subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.” 

So, you know, they’re not technically an agency and not required to produce documents they don’t want to produce, which is a problem. This is a police department that has more than 2,300 employees and 1,879 sworn officers, I believe, and a budget of $515 million.

What are some other ways that journalists can obtain access to the information they need right now to cover the story on the Capitol Police response?

Marquette: The Capitol Police do interact with and liaise in their law enforcement duties with the Metropolitan Police Department and various other federal agencies. You could send a FOIA request to those other agencies to see if they have any documents that are responsive to something regarding the Capitol Police, but that’s a more circuitous route than most journalists would want to take. And, to be honest, I haven’t had much luck with that.

I have gone through the Capitol Police’s press and public information officer — I’ve asked them what their jurisdiction is, square mileage, if they could help me better understand some arrest data that I was looking into, and almost all of those questions go unanswered. So, it’s very difficult to get information from the Capitol Police. Some information as fundamental as how many sworn officers [there are] is difficult to get from them. When I was writing a story about the secretive department that came out in June of 2020, I asked the spokesperson how many sworn officers there were. She didn’t answer the question; she just told me they had 2,300 officers and civilian employees. The reason why you want to know the number of sworn officers is that you want to be able to compare it with other police departments across the nation. It’s hard to do when they don’t give you the information.

You can also go to the Capitol Police website and see the limited resources that they provide to the public on their website. 

How do you think the events of this week — particularly the criticism surrounding the lack of preparedness — will impact future access to the Capitol Police? 

Marquette: I think there’s going to be a fundamental overhaul. The Capitol Police have always been funded by Congress. There have been some oversight hearings about the Capitol Police over the years. But for the most part, the Capitol Police have been on the back burner of congressional lawmakers’ minds and because of what happened on that tragic January 6 day, I think a lot of shortcomings of the department have been thrust into the forefront. As has been reported, there are several congressional investigations that are going to take place. And there’s an independent commission.

I think you can expect to see the Sergeant at Arms of the Senate and former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund — he has recently resigned — be brought before congressional panels and be asked tough questions. I think this intense scrutiny might establish a basis for lawmakers to make the department subject to the Freedom of Information Act and be more responsive to records requests. However, that could get a little thorny and complicated because the reason why the Capitol Police is exempt is because they’re part of the Legislative Branch. Congress is also not subject to FOIA. So, do lawmakers want themselves to be subject to FOIA is another question.

In general, what documents should reporters be asking for when submitting FOIA requests to law enforcement? 

Marquette: For local law enforcement, police misconduct records: How many have there been, against what officers, things of that nature. What they’re spending their money on — you’ve got to look at their budgets very closely. Local police departments should be putting out arrest data with as much information as you can get about these arrests. They should be putting these weekly arrest reports out with detailed information on who they’re arresting and why. In addition, citizen complaints are another thing that should be requested, and which officers at the local department, at the local level, have received the most citizen complaints against them. I think that’s a good place to start.
Advice from Jill Geisler,
Bill Plante Chair in Leadership & Media Integrity, Loyola University Chicago
Freedom Forum Fellow in Women’s Leadership

I spent the weekend trying to prepare for teaching this week on allyship. It was nearly impossible to concentrate.

Like anyone in journalism, I couldn’t disconnect from the unfolding news about the assault on the Capitol. Every new image adds layers of information. But they also have a remarkable consistency. 

The insurrectionists radiated hate. Let me be precise: White hate.
Newsroom leaders, especially if you’re white (and that’s long been the majority), please help your team members through the emotions they’re feeling right now.
Read Sam Sanders’ NPR essay: “The Lies We Tell Ourselves about Race,”

"The images from the Capitol this past week made that clear: a noose hanging outside the building. Inside, insurrectionists carrying a Confederate flag. Members of the mob wearing T-shirts that read ‘Civil War.’

"Our current troubles — and our current administration — are both just the latest chapters in America’s ongoing battle over race."

Sanders challenges those who say, “We’re better than this.” Because instead, it is proof of who we are. And, as Sanders points out, who we are is something newsrooms have struggled with, often hesitating to acknowledge and call out racism in our own organizations and in the world.

I thought about that when I saw the Confederate flag and the Auschwitz t-shirt proudly borne into the Capitol by the white rioters.

The “artifacts” make it easier to connect the riot to racism. But permit me to say that to be Black in America is to know the connection when signs of it aren’t literally hitting everyone else in the face.

To be Black in a newsroom is to be beyond weary of pointing out the connection, especially to people who can’t or won’t see it, then cloak that resistance in “both sides-ism” or sanitized language like “grievance” or “populism.” 

Black journalists have helped me understand, so I can teach this: It is exhausting to show people what they can’t imagine; to so often have to point out racism when it’s not draped in a Confederate flag or t-shirt slogan. When it’s framed as politics but is so much more.
Witness this final quote from Andrew McCormick’s “Madness on Capitol Hill” for the Nation:

" ‘This is not America,’ a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. She was crying, hysterical. ‘They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.’

"A man, possibly her husband, comforted her: ‘Don’t worry, honey. We showed them today. We showed them what we’re all about.’ "

News leaders, members of your team are processing the trauma of assault on the Capitol in ways that are personal to each of them — as journalists under siege, as Americans, as people of faith, as victims of racism. 

They may be having trouble concentrating. Or sleeping. They may be fearing their co-workers don’t understand the depth and complexity of the moment.
Or maybe they’re hoping that this time — they finally do.

Click here to read Jill’s previous posts.
The National Press Club Journalism Institute expanded its programming, services and reach in 2020, a year marked for journalists by coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic, systemic racial inequities in and out of newsrooms, and an election cycle unlike any other. 

The Institute seized opportunities to serve journalists, communicators and the public, as outlined in its second Annual Report, released Monday on its website.

This newsletter is written & edited by the National Press Club Journalism Institute staff: Beth Francesco, Holly Butcher Grant, and Julie Moos. Send us your questions and suggestions for topics to cover.

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