Dunphy Bans Screen Reporters From Paddle Hut, Member Says
Unnamed member, who is unsure who else saw it, guesses Widmer's questions on resignations were the cause; Dunphy could not be reached.
No reporter has tried the hut door; the paper stands on one man's account, and he is unsure.
Propane heater, whiteboard and chili not available for comment.
By Anita Bath·Staff Reporter
A Screen reporter approaches the hut door Thursday evening. It is the first attempt by anyone at the paper, and he stopped to check his notes before the handle.
“pushed Skip over the edge”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Sept. 24 —Skip Dunphy, president of the Rowayton Platform Tennis Association, has banned Rowayton Screen reporters from the paddle hut, according to one club member who asked not to be named and could not say who else saw it or how the news reached him. The member said the reporters have been denied entry. He offered no explanation for the denial, because, he said, none was given.
The member, who wrote to the paper on Monday, described the ban as an attack on the free press. The paper has no other account of it. It has not seen the ban, has not been shown the ban, and has not been turned away from the hut, having not yet attempted to enter it.
Asked by the desk who else had seen the ban, and whether he had heard of it from someone refused at the door or from someone further along the line, the member replied with a single word: "unsure." He later added that he had no further detail on either point.
The member's only account of a cause is a guess. He wrote that he was "pretty sure" Tim Widmer had been trying to interview a board member about "all of the resignations that have been happening lately," and that this "pushed Skip over the edge." He did not say which board member, which resignations, or where the interview was attempted. He did not say how he knew Mr. Widmer had been attempting it.
The paper has not spoken to Mr. Widmer. It has not spoken to any board member, to any officer or committee member of the association, or to anyone else who might be in a position to confirm the ban, the interview or the edge.
Mr. Dunphy could not be reached for comment. The desk is continuing its attempts to reach him directly, and told the member on Wednesday that it was treating the claim as serious and not as a rumor. It also told him that one unverified account is not enough to print a president's name against as fact, and that if he could recall who told him, or who was turned away, the paper could do more.
The member has not yet supplied either name. His follow-up, sent two days later, was the one about Mr. Widmer. It is the whole of the paper's record, together with the first message, which was four sentences long and contained the phrase "attack on the free press."
The paper takes the position that a sitting president shutting the press out of the hut, if it happened, would be among the more serious events of the pre-season, and it has reported the claim at that weight. It stands, for the present, on one man's account, and he is unsure.
At press time the hut door had not been tried by any reporter. The propane heater, the whiteboard and the chili were not available for comment.
