January 14, 2016
ALBANY, NY – Time Warner Cable News is reporting that J-Cope, the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, is considering passing a rule, to make it so that lobbyists cannot talk to journalists, without the lobbyists reporting to the state government, what the subject of the conversation was about.
An email went out this morning, from Republican strategist Bill O’Reilly, informing the media about this proposed rule. “If Andrew Cuomo’s Joint Commission on Public Integrity (JCOPE) has its way, this note will have to be reported to the government,” the email stated. “So will any phone calls between our office and yours, or any public relations office and yours for that matter, whether we initiate the calls or you do. If we call you to leak you information, that will have to be recorded. If you call us to confirm a story, that must be officially noted, too. The monthly logs will have to include your name and ours, the length of the calls, and the subject matters discussed, whether the conversations were on the record, off the record, or on background. Needless to say, our company will not comply with such a regulation if it is passed. If you are willing to go to jail to protect the identity of your sources — and some of you have — we are willing to go to jail to protect yours.”
Click here to read full story from Time Warner Cable News.
