during protests for the Aug. 9 shooting of unarmed black 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police... (Associated Press) 
 
 On Aug. 12, the morning after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed the first flight restriction, FAA air traffic managers struggled to redefine the flight ban to let commercial flights operate at nearby Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and police helicopters fly through the area — but ban others. "They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out," said one FAA manager of the St. Louis County Police Department's requests for the no-fly zone, according to the AP's review of the recordings, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. At another point, a manager at the FAA's Kansas City center said police "did not care if you ran commercial traffic through this TFR (temporary flight restriction) all day long. But Thouvenot didn't know that the media could have simply filed a flight plan to enter Ferguson. But according to the recordings obtained by the AP, after drafting a modification to allow commerical flights to continue using nearby Lambert–St. "FAA cannot and will never exclusively ban media from covering an event of national significance, and media was never banned from covering the ongoing events in Ferguson in this case," FAA Administrator Michael P. Huerta said in a statement provided to the Los Angeles Times. Huerta said that "when requested and no safety or security issues exist, the FAA actively facilitates media access to airspace," adding, "To the best of our knowledge, during the 11-day period flight restrictions of varying levels were in place, no media outlets objected to any of the restrictions." But confusion could have been the point, at least according to one FAA official speaking about the modified Ferguson no-fly zone on the recordings obtained by the AP: "A lot of the time the [lesser restriction] just keeps the press out, anyways. They don't understand the difference." The new order allows "aircraft on final (approach) there at St. Louis. It will still keep news people out. The only way people will get in there is if they give them permission in there anyway so they, with the (lesser restriction), it still keeps all of them out." "Yeah," replied the police official, according to the AP. "I have no problem with that whatsoever." KMOV-TV News Director Brian Thouvenot told the AP that his station was prepared at first to legally challenge the flight restrictions, but was later advised that its pilot could fly over the area as long as the helicopter stayed above 3,000 feet. None of the St. Louis stations was advised that media helicopters could enter the airspace even under the lesser restrictions, which under federal rules should not have applied to aircraft "carrying properly accredited news representatives." Brian Schellman said, "The St. Louis County Police Department reaffirms the reason the request for restricted airspace was made was due to the hostile nature of certain persons on the ground that fired gunshots at the police helicopter, as well as used a laser device pointed at the police helicopter. Police and aviation officials denied a report Sunday that they ordered a no-fly zone over Ferguson, Mo., this summer in order to keep news helicopters away from the protests that formed after a police officer killed an unarmed man. Ferguson police were widely criticized for their response following the death of Brown, who was shot by a city police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9. A male FAA manager asked at one point, "So are [the police] protecting aircraft from small-arms fire or something? "Or do they think they're just going to keep the press out of there, which they can't do."
– As protests erupted in Ferguson, Mo., this summer, police sought a no-fly zone over the area for "safety"—but later admitted it was to keep the media out. Federal Aviation Administration officials agreed to impose flight restrictions on more than 37 square miles of airspace, but they tried to find a way to allow police helicopters and commercial traffic in while keeping news helicopters out, according to recordings obtained by the AP, which notes that the recordings raise serious questions about whether "police were trying to suppress aerial images of the demonstrations and the police response by violating the constitutional rights of journalists with tacit assistance by federal officials." In one recording, a Kansas City FAA manager says police didn't care if commercial traffic went through the restricted area all day long, they just "didn't want media in there." Police claimed they asked for restrictions after a police helicopter was shot, but an FAA manager described that as "rumors," and there's no police report on the alleged shooting. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta tells the Los Angeles Times that the agency "cannot and will never exclusively ban media from covering an event of national significance" and the media was never banned from covering events in Ferguson. On the recordings, however, FAA officials speak of the restrictions that were put in place effectively keeping the press out because "they don't understand the difference."