Kristi Noem and her spokesboy Ian Fury are calling Kevin Woster a liar. Isn’t lying about South Dakota’s senior outdoor journalist and a member of South Dakota’s greatest writing families grounds for impeachment?
All South Dakota journalists are on the Noem Administration’s only-call-to-call-names list, but Woster is getting special attention for his prominent role in Bart Pfankuch’s July 27 report on the decline of transparency across state government under Noem. Woster says he can’t even get Game Fish and Parks experts to respond promptly, in person, and without prior review from higher-ups to basic questions in their areas of expertise. Woster elaborates on the state’s refusal to elaborate in his latest SDPB column:
I wrote my first wildlife story about a cooperative project between SDSU and GF&P on paddlefish n the summer of 1974, while I was in college. And I’m lucky to still be writing GF&P stories today, although certainly not as many.
Here’s the way it used to work most of the time for me in covering Game, Fish & Parks: I’d get a story idea. I’d make a call or two or stop by an office or two. I’d do an interview or two or three or more. I’d write a story.
Crazy, huh?
Sure, there were times when people would clam up on controversial issues, when access was more restricted. But that wasn’t the general way of things. It helped, too, of course, to develop a relationship of respect over many years of coverage.
At one time I knew pretty much everybody in GF&P leadership in Pierre, in the four GF&P regions and most of the conservation officers and fish and game biologists across the state. I had phone numbers for most of these people — work and home. And when cell phones became common, I had cell-phone numbers for many of them.
People usually picked up. They usually talked. Usually it was on the record. And that was how a lot of reporters were treated, not just me. That’s not the way it is now. Now pretty much all interview requests have to go through GF&P’s communications office in Pierre. It’s policy [Kevin Woster, “The Most Transparent Governor in South Dakota History? Well, Only at the ‘Appropriate Time’,” SDPB Radio, 2023.08.11].
Woster says GF&P spokesman Nick Harrington’s and the Noem Administration’s relegation of press engagement to “the appropriate time” is code for “censorship by public information officer”:
I also note that Harrington writes that GF&P may respond to reporter contacts “as appropriate.” I’m not quite sure what that means.
Fury used similar language, “at the appropriate time,” with Pfankuch in describing when Noem speaks to the media.
To me, “as appropriate” or “the appropriate time” should mean anytime a working reporter seeks information or interviews. Used and interpreted otherwise, it can easily be misused.
…Reporters in other states are finding themselves pushed to deal with public information officers rather than the agency specialist they would prefer. In his story, Pfankuch referred to a term used to describe this trend by the journalism trade group the Society of Professional Journalists: “censorship by PIO.”
I saw more of the PIO push across state government in the last decade or so of my full-time news work. Until I read the News Watch story, I’d never heard the term censorship by PIO. But it seems like a fair description of what’s happening in Game, Fish & Parks these days [Woster, 2023.08.11].
Woster is not lying; Noem and Fury are attacking one of the most respected reporters in the state for reporting facts that contradict the Governor’s image-making.
Freedom may Work Here, but as Woster points out, Governor Noem doesn’t want a free press working here.
I would take Wosters word over the governors on anything.
The introduction of the Chinese ring-necked pheasant to South Dakota is one of most destructive examples of ecoterrorism in US history and has heralded the near eradication of habitat for native wild turkeys and grouse. But a shaky cease fire in the attempted extermination of native species to prop up the pheasant industry has taken effect after the state’s Republican governor put bounties on raccoons and skunks known to feed on prolific invasive zebra mussels.
Even children have been enlisted to slaughter native species.
The good news? 1,158,000 invasive Chinese ring-necked pheasants were put to death in the state between October 15, 2022 and January 31, 2023.
In South Dakota over a hundred native species are at risk to the Republican Party including the endangered pallid sturgeon, paddlefish, black footed ferret, northern long-eared bat, the black-backed woodpecker that feeds on bark beetles and a bird that actually walks underwater – the American dipper, just to name a few.
I don’t know what anyone else’s current “Top 10 South Dakota Liars” list looks like, but I might guess most of the lists have the same name at #1……….and it is not Kevin Woster who is not even on my list.
Republican government is mirroring the business community they covet – it’s all PR, not news, not information.
Catch Scott Galloway’s comment here on the PR staff of hiring of one company more folks than are reporters for the Washington Post — all those PR folks’ function is puffing up the stock price, not providing consumer information, or news.
Comment at about the 39 minute point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otyoPiVAicI
Yesterday would have been the “appropriate time” for Kristi Lynn to double up on her rispiridone. She’s mental, and I mean this in the worst way.
Alternative terms for how republicans treat the media and anyone else seeking the truth are SNOB, shady, suspect, suspish, slippery, underhanded, Putinesque, predatory, incompetent, slick, loaded with crap, etc.
KN even looks the part of a plotting villain with her spindly, long aye-aye fingers and hooded eyes. She only smiles when she is demeaning someone, usually our current president. Chilling.
People are right to just ignore media questions. The media is bad and just makes stuff up. Some are real bad.
People are right to just ignore crudzdick. It is bad and just makes stuff up. It is real bad.
One of the first moves a fascist (or fascist-leaning) leader is to domesticate the press and media.
A free press is essential to the continuation of a democracy. I don’t normally call him out, but I’ve had it. Grudznick can stick his opinion where the sun doesn’t shine.
CK, it’s pretty crowded already in grudz’s shady place. But most of us thank you for your thought.
Early Goats!
Hide your goats, or grudznick will get them!
It’s interesting to me that Noem calls Woster a liar. I’d agree with her, but only when he’s writing about that big fish he claims he caught. Otherwise, Kevin is a straight reporter. He quotes accurately. He may have an angle on a story that you might think is a little off, but if you talk with him, he works your point of view into his story.
In terms of “appropriate time,” I can’t think what would be a more appropriate time to tell the truth than right now. Generally, truth that gets put on the shelf for “the appropriate time” gets moldy. And if you can’t talk to the people who actually know something, it doesn’t much matter what a p.r. flad says because no one will believe it. Yeah, sometimes on big stories there may be a lot of media requests which need to be addressed in an orderly manner. A p.r. flak can help there. A public information officer is fine for fielding open records requests, as long as they do it according to law. Otherwise, let people talk to the people who know what is going on.
When you are in possession of facts, and someone shares those facts, and you subsequently call that someone a liar, are you not subject to losing a defamation suit? Kevin is a “public figure,” but lying about him with “malice” while knowing you are lying should not be hard to demonstrate. Ian has already provided much of the evidence.
Even the tone of the response, “BS” and “total crock” are starting to sound like Trump “Truths.” Classy, at a 4th grade playground level. Why not just use “alternative facts”? That’s what the big boys do, and these amateurs do so want to be noticed by the “in crowd.”
That’s the pot calling the kettle black. She lied about the death tax and how it affected her family.
Thank you Kevin for your convicted honesty of reporting. Trump-Noen Campaign, has a sinister ring to it!
magats can’t tell the truth. With an election upcoming they don’t want to lose their base. I’d believe Wooster long before I’d take the word of a single magat of any stripe.
Having attended SDSU with Kevin Woster almost 50 years ago, I can say that attacking him is further proof that Kristi Noem is the worst South Dakota Governor in my lifetime.
For years I was a regular reader and commenter on Mt. Blogmore and during that time had several discussions and disagreements with Kevin. I cannot recall a single incident where I thought Kevin made a factual misrepresentation about anything we discussed or disagreed about. Noem and her team calling Kevin a liar seems yet another example of the Trumpist tactic of projecting one’s own horrible behavior on an opponent or critic.
Don’t get into a battle of wits with those who are unarmed.
Tim at the top of the comments column is correct. Kevin Woster, and his older brothers, Jim and Terry, are highly respected journalists in South Dakota. Hundreds of farmers and ranchers held off going to market until they had fully digested Jim’s market analysis. He was the Dean of Agriculture analysts and reporters in South Dakota for many years. Likewise, Terry was the Dean of News Reporters in Pierre when he reported for the AP. He did not rush to print with a story until he had thoroughly developed it, using his own sources and tempering his reporting by sticking to the facts. Kevin is the youngest, and has followed in that tradition. All three are professional Journalists.
They are from the Reliance-Chamberlain area, Lyman and Brule County boys, and “right as rain.”
I have been reading articles written by the Woster brothers for literally decades. They have and will continue to be a respected South Dakota institution. The current governor will never be remembered as such.
Apeaking againof free press, the Marion Kansas Pigs raided the local newspaper and took computersm employee cell phones and records, raided the publisher’s home, took his computers, cell phones, copied his bank records and may have stresses the publisher’s 98 y/o Mother to death all apparently over a story that was not published.
Now the county attorney withdrew search warrant as havubg insufficient eviudence and returned all property. Anyone smell a major lawsuit upcoming?
https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/marion-county-attorney-withdraws-search-warrant-against-kansas-newspaper-returns-items
I trust the Wosters. I don’t trust Noem and Fury. And KELO is pointing out Noem’s lack of full disclosure about childhood education?
https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/gov-kristi-noems-no-1-post-only-part-of-story-on-early-education?utm_source=kelo_app&utm_medium=social&utm_content=share-link
Rick posted a mostly negative assessment of SD’s Pre-K education package from a very reputable source.
Why would your Governor and her communications team try to mislead the citizens by only posting the good part and then pretending the report was favorable?