Another missed story
Too bad the Herald-Whig didn't cover this report from the Better Government Association on the dismal performance of local officials in complying with their Freedom of Information obligations. Adams, Brown, Pike, Hancock, McDonough.....pick your county. Overall fewer than half of the officials contacted fulfilled their duties under the law.
Why no story? Perhaps because it involves "out of towners" who are making our local officials look bad? The Whig and all other local media should have been all over this. If they don't make a fuss about freedom of information, who will?
Why no story? Perhaps because it involves "out of towners" who are making our local officials look bad? The Whig and all other local media should have been all over this. If they don't make a fuss about freedom of information, who will?
posted by Allthenewsthatfits at 9:04 AM
3 Comments:
They can only cover stories they know about. Did the BGA let them know they were issuing the report? Did they let them know they were even preparing a report so the local media could keep an eye out for it? Not everything should require the media to have to dig up information--those who are gathering information for public release also have an obligation to adequately share what they have learned.
Oops! Meant to finish:
But overall I agree with you that the local media needs to work a bit harder to report stories of this nature.
Thanks for the heads up, ATNTFOB.
My two-part series aired on WTAD yesterday and today.
My conclusion was while we need to keep an eye on things (especially in at least one county to our north), and that I wholeheartedly agree with the BGA's call for an annual FOIA report from govt. agencies, for the most part our local agencies ARE trying to fulfill FOIA requests as per the law, even if they do sometimes have a problem with execution.
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