Some of the unanswered questions about Governor Carcieri’s new penchant for videotaping the State House press corps have been answered.

For those who missed the first chapter: Carcieri’s office asked a state employee to videotape reporters as they asked questions of the governor during a press conference last Tuesday. At the time, Carcieri’s communications director, John Robitaille, said his office plans to do media training for the handful of public information officers in state government and wants to give spokespeople an idea of how to answer questions from reporters.

In a series of subsequent emails last week, Robitaille filled in some of the blanks and answered the one big lingering question about the governor’s intentions.

For starters, he identified the cameraman as Klaus O’Neal, a $56,541-a-year associate executive assistant in the governor’s office, according to state personnel records. Robitaille described O’Neal’s job somewhat differently.

He said O’Neal actually works for the Department of Administration's information-technology division, “and he is assigned to provide support to the Governor’s Office and the Treasurer’s Office. He also manages the Governor’s Web site and is responsible for sourcing and posting of any photos, video and audio files.’’ Robitaille said O’Neal also “has the capability to convert video and audio files for the Web,’’ and it is “our plan is to add audio and video files to the Governor’s Web site in the coming months.

“It’s another media resource to clearly and effectively deliver the Governor’s messages to the public; and you can find video clips on many governors’ Web sites,’’ he said.

Might that include selected clips of reporters asking the governor questions? Stay tuned.

As for the camera, Robitaille said it was not bought specifically for this purpose.

He said it was acquired by the Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals four or five years ago to make training videos, but then Chet Browning, the employee who handled video-production for MHRH retired. Robitaille had the camera transferred for use by the governor’s office. “Instead of not being used they wanted to make sure somebody could use the camera,’’ he said.

To the question on many reporters’ minds the day the governor trained a camera on them -- was this intended as a form of intimidation? -- Robitaille said: “Certainly not! Besides, I doubt that neither you nor your colleagues could be intimidated.’’

--Katherine Gregg, Journal State House Bureau