Posted on 03/16/2005 7:47:51 PM PST by Ellesu
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A group of Louisiana newspapers are suing for access to the 911 tapes that summoned help last month for Secretary of State Fox McKeithen, who was paralyzed in a fall at his home.
The state's Gannett newspapers — The Times of Shreveport, The News-Star of Monroe, The Town Talk of Alexandria, The Daily Advertiser of Lafayette and The Opelousas Daily World — are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, along with the Louisiana Press Association and Gannett reporter John Hill, who works in the company's capital bureau in Baton Rouge.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, contends that 911 services are publicly funded and the tapes, therefore, are subject to Louisiana's public records law. McKeithen, the state's top elections official, injured his spinal cord in the fall Feb. 17, and doctors haven't determined if his paralysis is temporary or permanent.
Gannett's capital bureau filed a written public records request Feb. 21 to listen to the 911 call that summoned emergency services to McKeithen's home, but the East Baton Rouge Parish attorney's office — representing the parish Department of Emergency Medical Services — denied the request.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
what is the point or motivation in this?
This is the same Gannett that won't even allow us to post even excerpts from their newspapers, which for the most part, aren't very good newspapers anyway.
Nobody has any privacy to do anything anymore.
I do believe 911 tapes are public, aren't they?
I suspect they think he was three sheets to the wind.
Gannett = many newspapers around the country, including USA Today.
HIPPA did wonders for Rush/sarcasm off!
Mr. McKeithen has had problems with alcohol in the past. I would think that this is a fishing expedition to see if they can tie the fall into an alcohol related incident. If they can do that, then they can impugn his character. It is definitely not about finding out some crucial element of truth.
Leave the man alone and let him concentrate on his rehabilitation and health.
By the way, I am not a Fox McKeithen fan but I do recognize an attempt at "drive by" journalism.
Pelican Five
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