Gov. Mike Pence will reject 'Just IN' if it's state-run news

Gov. Mike Pence told a conservative talk show host Wednesday that he would reject any version of his new "Just IN" website that looks like state-run media, continuing to distance himself from a written news service plan developed by his staff.

Meanwhile, Pence's communications staff, who authored the plan for "Just IN," scrambled to tamp down concerns over the news service Wednesday morning in a strange, sometimes emotional exchange with Indiana Statehouse reporters.

Pence appeared on Greg Garrison's radio talk show to explain his administration's new communications plans, at one point saying he was unsure who wrote the plan for "Just IN," details of which were first reported by The Indianapolis Star.

Garrison continuously pressed Pence to abandon any plan for a state-run news service, until Pence finally said he would reject any state-run news outlet.

"As governor I can assure you that (the plan) did not meet my expectations and if this website doesn't meet my expectations of respecting the role of a free and independent press, I will reject it​," Pence said Wednesday on WIBC-FM.

Pence also repeated his earlier explanation that the new site was intended to be a resource, not a news source.

Garrison continued to question him: "How does an idea that's antithetical to what you were setting out to do go that far, when nobody caught it? Who wrote that thing?"

Pence replied: "I'm asking all those questions, Greg. I frankly learned about the memo from press reports late Monday. Using terms like news service, like news outlet, it's just not appropriate."

Critics of the written plan for "Just IN" quickly drew comparisons to other state-run media outlets like the Russian communist party's Pravda, with one dubbing it "Pravda on the Plains." The national Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement late Tuesday saying it was putting the Pence team on watch.

As Pence went on the radio, Pence Communications Director Christy Denault sought to allay concerns from Indiana media Wednesday in a news briefing.

Denault insisted that the plan for "Just IN" started as an idea to update the state's online press release calendar system and said she was always planning to ask Indiana media for their input on what would be useful.

Denault said that the use of journalism language in the documents unearthed by The Star was "shorthand" and never meant to give the idea they would be running a competing news outlet.

She also said the staff would no longer use the word "story" to describe press releases they planned to distribute through the website and would probably back away from terms like "managing editor" and "editorial board."

"When we tried to put things down on paper, we started using some shorthand," Denault said. "Frankly, we weren't very clear with our language."

Contact reporter Tom LoBianco at (317) 444-7136 or on Twitter @tomlobianco.