When you are a journalist, there are certain things that immediately make you take note — and caution.

One of those is any elected official in any capacity saying they need to “send a message” to the media. It’s a big red flag waving in the face of anyone who covers government. But that’s exactly what happened when some members of the Fountain Hills Town Council got irked over a headline in the Fountain Hills Times Independent.

Not long after, as The Arizona Republic’s First Amendment reporter Taylor Seely reported , the desk for media at the back of the town’s meeting room for council meetings was removed.

Message sent, I guess. But probably not the message the council members intended.

The message Fountain Hills council members sent was petty and small-minded

If it was meant to fo

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