09/20/06

Ohio governor campaigns agree to allow photo coverage during debate

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press Writer

CLEVELAND (AP) -- In a reversal, the candidates for Ohio governor allowed The Associated Press to shoot still photos Wednesday for pool coverage during their second debate.

The campaigns of Republican Ken Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland had said photo coverage would be restricted to the candidates' handshake before the debate and interviews afterward.

In a letter to the campaigns, the AP, dozens of its member newspapers and the Ohio Newspaper Association demanded that photo access be given for the full debate. The AP and those organizations were prepared to boycott photo coverage of the debate if full access was not allowed.

Newspaper editors expressed satisfaction that the campaigns had lifted the restriction. The letter had called complete coverage of the debates essential to voters evaluating their choice in the Nov. 7 election.

"It's great when people who try to tell us how to cover the news realize that's not the way it works," Patti Ewald, managing editor of The (Elyria) Chronicle-Telegram, said Wednesday.

"The candidates were wise to change their position," said Doug Clifton, editor of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper. "They're foolish to have held it in the first place."

Frank Deaner, ONA's executive director, said voters and the democratic process benefited.

"We're pleased that the candidates have reconsidered and now recognize the importance of complete debate coverage, including still photographs," he said.

Reporters and photographers were denied entry to a television studio in Youngstown where the first debate took place Sept. 5. Reporters had to watch the debate on TV monitors, which showed each candidate when speaking and no reactions from the other candidate. The only still photography was a picture of the candidates shaking hands before the debate.

The AP on Wednesday transmitted photographs showing the candidates as they spoke and reacted to each other during the debate on education issues.

The campaigns earlier agreed to allow print, radio and television reporters who had obtained credentials into the studio of WEWS-TV for Wednesday's debate. The debate was shown statewide on television and the Internet.

Blackwell spokesman Carlo LoParo said Wednesday that space is always a concern at debates. But he said the campaign wanted the public to be able to view the event both on television and through still photographs.

The Strickland campaign said the AP satisfied its concerns over whether a photographer would distract the candidates.

"Access to the media outweighed a concern over minor distractions through the debate," spokesman Keith Dailey said.