Believe I'll give Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck some benefit of the doubt after his uncharacteristic hissy fit with reporter Tracy Neal last Friday morning.
A news story said Cradduck threatened to arrest Neal, a reporter for this newspaper, if Neal dared to enter a news conference the sheriff said had been scheduled for television stations.
Hmmm. After 45 years in this news and journalism game, I've always been under the impression that a news conference with any elected, tax-paid public official is open to all those who collect and report the news.
A veteran of 20 decorated years in law enforcement, including a period as public information officer at the Rogers Police Department, Cradduck understands that, as well as realizing competing news agencies often request one-on-one interviews, trusting they will remain that way.
Yet to supposedly threaten a print reporter with arrest because he was intent on attending a scheduled news conference with his TV brethren tells me the sheriff (a man I've long respected) may have not slept well the night before, or perhaps skipped breakfast.
In this instance, Neal had an interview appointment with Cradduck at 10:30. He said someone at the sheriff's office asked if he'd arrived early for the scheduled news conference at 11. Neal also had seen several TV station vehicles in the parking lot.
As a reporter, Neal was curious and asked Cradduck about the 11 a.m. gathering he was told had been requested by television reporters to discuss a possible grant to purchase body cameras for Cradduck's officers.
He said Cradduck objected to his attending the conference since it reportedly was arranged by television stations solely for their needs and he apparently felt obliged to limit attendance to them.
"Look, it's to my benefit to have the newspaper there," Cradduck is quoted as saying. "But I didn't schedule the conference. I was told it was for the TV stations. Maybe I misunderstood, but I don't think I did."
Yet, that left me a tad confused, since the news account of this tempest quoted one TV station's assignment director contradicting that version. Adam Roberts of KBHS/KHOG said the sheriff's office had scheduled the conference, rather than his station. "This is the first time I've heard of that."
The sheriff also said he'd be able to clarify what arrangements had been made for the conference when his public information officer returns from vacation this week. Believe I'd have been on my cell phone last Friday. Just sayin'.
This "Who's on first" saga could be almost comical if the crux of it wasn't a serious matter. We're talking about a public meeting by public officials in a public building to discuss the public's business with public money.
The contentious exchange between Cradduck and Neal went on for a spell with the sheriff saying Neal had no right to disobey his order not to attend the conference or be allowed to wander through the building filled with prisoners, witnesses and victims.
Neal "was breaking the rules in a building built on rules," is how Cradduck was quoted. True enough, but kinda reminds me of the line from Les Miserables where Inspector Javert reminds everyone he is "the law, and the law is not mocked!"
The threat to jail Neal, the sheriff explained further, came after he'd told Neal several times not to attend the conference. "He doesn't have the right to ignore me," Cradduck told a reporter.
Once again, none of this sounds like the softer-edged Kelley Cradduck I've known for years. I've never seen him be remotely that abrasive or seemingly arrogant in his dealings with media.
Through it all, Neal stood his ground as Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette photographer Jason Ivester arrived at the sheriff's office to join him. Ivester said he then became a witness to the exchanges between Neal and a frustrated Cradduck, including one doozy in which he said Cradduck (in the presence of others attending the conference) told Neal: "Tracy, get your ass out of here!"
The sheriff said he initially didn't know who Ivester was, or which paper he was with, assuming he was with another publication that had caught wind of the television news conference. But Ivester contends that after he identified himself as being with Neal and working for the same paper, he said "Cradduck rolled his eyes and gave body language that told Neal to come along to the press conference."
This mini-drama strikes me as a simple disagreement that should have been short-circuited from the get-go through effective communication.
An Arkansas Press Association official chimed in, saying there's no legal basis for threatening to arrest reporters or private citizens for attending a public meeting. And this was very much a public meeting in a public place.
Given a do-over, I believe Cradduck would have remained calmer and realized it wasn't his responsibility to protect the television stations' interview from a newspaper reporter who happened across that event.
Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mikemasterson10@hotmail.com.
Editorial on 08/04/2015