The latest public condemnation of the way the Mangum
administration handles media relations came from the Tallahassee Democrat. On
Friday, February 26 its editorial board fired back after FAMU Assistant Vice President
of Communications Elise Durham suggested that the faculty senate exclude
reporters from its meetings.
“For the head of the communications office to suggest
cutting off communication is like the campus health clinic telling students
they’re not getting enough tar and nicotine,” the editorial board wrote.
It added that: “Her intentions are not bad, just ill-advised
-- and probably illegal.”
Back in November, WTXL ABC 27 took Mangum to task for a set of restrictions she placed on an invite-only media availability.
“As a news organization, we did not feel the conditions in
which Florida A&M University dictated today’s interview opportunity to be
acceptable,” WTXL-27 News
Director III M. David Lee III said. “If Dr. Mangum wishes to sit down with WTXL, with
whoever we choose as the reporter, for an open and frank conversation about the
university, we are more than willing to set that up. However, asking a
television station not to videotape the interview, trying to handpick who can
do the interview and the initially limiting reporter questions to just one, is
unacceptable.”
The week before, Mangum had chosen to leave out a back door
during an on-campus press conference that she called and ignored media
representatives who asked her for answers about issues related to her
administration.
That incident was preceded by a September 3 column by FAMUan
Editor-in-Chief Reggie Mizell that criticized Mangum for excluding student
editors from the planning process for a new “official newspaper” at the
university. He said the president told him and other student journalists
that: “It won't be the FAMUAN. It’ll be
a real newspaper, like the Wall Street Journal.”
Mangum responded with an “Open Letter to the Editor of The
Famuan” that prompted Valerie D. White, an associate professor of journalism,
to answer with a stinging op-ed in the student newspaper. She said Mangum was
“bullying” the student journalists.
“The letter was sent to The Famuan with a directive to
publish it. That is not how this works. It is bullying, the same action Mangum
accuses the board of trustees of doing,” White wrote.
Just two days ahead of the controversy with The FAMUan,
Rattler Nation had editorialized against Mangum’s decision to duck tough
questions from a News Service of Florida reporter.
The only thing sadder than the amateurish media relations of
Mangum’s team is that no one in its senior ranks appears to be competent enough
to understand what the administration has been doing wrong.