Stop the tape

I earlier promised a more detailed excursion into the Q and A part of the WPPC - FDA session and I hope I get around to it - for your sake! The session represented a rare opportunity for WPPC attendees to ask FDA officials questions, and there were some probing questions and insightful exchanges, if no earthshaking revelations. We can only rue the fact that the biggest FDA critic of all was inexplicably absent and unavailable to deliver Lou Dobbs-esque zingers. Sigh.

In any case, you may have noted (but probably not) that I earlier posted an MP3 audio file of the meeting on the Fresh Produce Industry Discussion Group. United asked me to take the recording down last Friday, explaining in a later email “we (United) had an agreement with our guest speakers that the meeting would not be recorded for purposes of posting on the Internet and also that we (United) feel that such a posting would be unfair to those who paid to attend the meeting.”

I did take the audio down from the Discussion Group, though I wasn't happy about it. My position was that a panel of FDA officials (and United's David Gombas and Tom Stenzel) speaking in the FDA auditorium in College Park to about 140 trade members and multiple members of the press should have a presumption that the event was for public consumption, whether those words were transcribed from tape or available on the Web in MP3 format. No one at the FDA has responded to give their account or opinion. In any event, I've asked FDA and United to reconsider their policy on Web audio of future joint events that may garner wider industry interest.

I think the "new media" that the Web facilitates does present some challenges to both news organizations and the sources we cover. For example, associations want to maximize the value of each event, and news organizations seek to maximize the timely multimedia coverage offered. It is not an easy equation. But particularly in the case of events involving public officials, openness should be the default position.