In Oregon Department of Justice opinion 8291, dated April 18, 2016, former attorney general Ellen Rosenblum and former assistant attorney general Frederick Boss answer questions from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission regarding media access to executive sessions. According to the opinion, Oregon Public Meetings Law requires that members of the news media must be permitted to attend executive sessions held by public bodies in the state with the exception of executive sessions held to inspect records related to the expulsion of minor students and sessions regarding talking with counsel about current litigation or litigation likely to be filed, if the media member is a party to the litigation. Neither of these exceptions apply to the reason that city manager robb corbett gave me when he blocked my path and informed me that I could not attend the executive session that was held on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. corbett stated that he’d spoken with Pendleton city attorney nancy kerns regarding the matter and was eagerly awaiting further communications regarding the issue.
I am James Hehn, formerly Tibbets and I own and have published Pendletonian Times intermittently since December 2016. In this time, I’ve experienced a variety of reactions from city staff that have been inconsistent with expectations. For example, I expect that city staff should want to cooperate with news media in the same manner that spokespeople from the state and federal levels cooperate with the Times but what I’ve found is that in the Round-Up City, it’s not what you know or whether you go about things in good faith but who you pay for what privileges.
I’m not the first upstart from out of town to upset the establishment of this city with a newspaper called Pendletonian. According to a retelling of the East Oregonian published on its centennial in 1975, we can be traced to “an enterprising gentleman from Walla Walla” who founded a paper in 1871 that burned a year later. The phoenix rose again in 1902 but was rebranded the Pendleton Daily Guide a year later. Then, after proving to the editors of the East Oregonian that their editorial regarding the hack of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Convention by Guccifer 2.0 was based on their feelings alone and did not look at the evidence, I learned that once you become the editorial staff or publisher of a newspaper then your feelings can be published as though they are facts and next to nothing can stop you in the State of Oregon, not even nancy kerns … then I learned that editorials are the only place in the paper where you can get away with that stuff and when reporters do it while reporting then their credentials get revoked and they get shiny new jobs at Oregon Public Broadcasting … 🤣
So I started an online newspaper and thought I was being original when I called it Pendletonian Times. But while I didn’t make the name up, I think I was the first person to use it in over a century. Therefore, at the very least I’ve been honored to make it my own and now that I own it and it owns some intellectual property that I’ve produced and overseen, I’d like to ensure that when I die it does not die with me!
kerns gave me informal legal advice in early October 2024 regarding the legality of excluding my publication unless I could provide proof of legal structure and a business license. While I tend to agree with the former attorney general, kerns thinks that the administration that she advises is above the law and that she and corbett can violate the rights of my newspaper with impunity. But, I scrambled and came up with a business name, Limited Liability Company and city business license anyway, though technically, as long as my publication is not located on a personal Facebook account and actually reports on the subject of the executive session in question … not even Governor Tina Kotek can stop me! Who do robb and nancy think I am, East Oregonian?
This started out as an effort to hold the media accountable but it became readily apparent that the media is probably as accountable as they’re ever going to be. Then, The Other Newspaper turned out to not even mind the competition and even has kicked down on advice a time or two … Wright, Harris, Aney and even Ms. Brown have been at least civil while the salaried city staff have been wanting to kick me out and make my work difficult since I started in 2016.
#GetTheGoodOlBoysGone
Tonight’s violation of my first amendment rights as well as the statutory rights of my newspaper are not going unnoticed. I want not only a handwritten and signed apology from corbett and kerns delivered to the address that they have on file for my publishing company and mailed separately from each other with individual postage affixed, on City of Pendleton stationary … I think Mayor McKennon McDonald needs to break out one of those red pens that I know she has and initial that she’s read the letters, making those crooks rewrite the letters until she’s satisfied that they know what they did wrong and will never attempt to bully me in the course of my newsgathering or anyone who I send in my place … or representatives of the EO, Pendleton Lantern, regular ol’ Portland Oregonian, Süddeutsch Zeitung or Weekly World News! If the National Enquirer comes for Round-Up, I think it should be up to robb and nancy to show them around … pinche chingaderas, puta madre …
Turns out, I’m the person who decides what my newspaper publishes and if I’ve committed libel against Pendleton, corbett or kerns … sue me. Otherwise, get to handwriting those letters and show me the penmanship that they taught back before the invention of rocks and probably before Roy Raley, too … roflcopter! You have 21 days to respond in writing else I’ll have a few words with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and see what they think about the situation, plus sue you punks for -$1 plus legal fees and pain and suffering … and I’ll bring the popcorn for when the judge tells nancy to RTFM!