Prior to the start of the 89th Iowa General Assembly, the Iowa Senate changed a procedure that has been in existence for a century.

It was announced that all media would no longer be allowed in their designated area on the chamber floor, but would have to attend all functions from the public gallery above the chamber. District 24 Senator Jesse Green of Boone tells Raccoon Valley Radio he’s first reaction to the change was he thought it had something to do with the pandemic, because his first year as a state senator was last year when the media wasn’t allowed on the senate floor, nor were their clerks. However, Green says the issue is confusion of what is labeled as media.

“In this social media world, there’s a lot of (online) bloggers and stuff who call themselves ‘media.’ It’s a completely different circumstance than at any point in Iowa’s history that we’ve seen in how we look at media.”

Green points out this issue has no impact on him because he enjoys talking to the media and if he needs to have a private conservation, he has an office at the capitol building. Green talks about the situation being difficult to put himself in another senator’s shoes.

“I sit right in front of the doors in the center of the chamber. Nobody sits further away from the media than I do. So I do not know what that would be like if I was one of those senators that was sitting literally two feet from a blogger that could instantly be posting on Facebook a conversation I’m having or something like that. I guarantee you those senators that sit next to that media bench, their view of the situation is completely different than mine.”    

Green hopes to have a resolution to this issue and make a clearer definition of what is media. The Iowa House is continuing to allow media onto its chamber floor this session.