“Why should we put our documents online if you won’t put yours on?” I’d ask.
And if the reporter dutifully responds, “that proposal would have imposed a costly burden!” I’d laugh and say, “Yeah, right. Same here.”
This isn’t just another same-old-same-old case of an industry opposing a disclosure regulation. An important statement from the deans of twelve leading journalism schools put it well: “Broadcast news organizations depend on, and consistently call for, robust open-record regimes for the institutions they cover; it seems hypocritical for broadcasters to oppose applying the same principle to themselves.”
Indeed, news organizations should be leading the efforts to make the political system more transparent—not fighting furiously to thwart such efforts.
We're also crowdsourcing portions of these files at ProPublica. If the stations aren't willing to publish the files, we'll do it for them.
More information here. Big thanks to Steven for his writing on the subject.
#1 Posted by Daniel Victor, CJR on Wed 28 Mar 2012 at 03:18 PM
Best solution is to redistribute all public assets and. close down government. That way disputes have straightforward resolutions which start with the enquiry: who owns it? Actually, what gives anyone any right to ask me how much I earn anyway?
The IRS is actually part of a system of aggression against people, and should be shut down, along with all coercion of all people to provide information.
What do you plan to do if I don't tell you what you want to know? Send thugs to come and abduct me? Probably. So, ask yourself: how civilised is it to arrest people for silence?
#2 Posted by Desmond Gorven, CJR on Wed 28 Mar 2012 at 08:24 PM
Victor, thank you for posting the link. Apologies for not mentioning. Pro Publica's efforts are very important (as are a few similar efforts by New America Foundation and CJR itself)
#3 Posted by Steven Waldman, CJR on Sun 1 Apr 2012 at 04:42 PM
FreePress.org is also assisting with this effort: http://www.freepress.net/resource/98445/inspecting-broadcasters-public-and-political-files
BTW: My local Media Reform organization (Friends of Community Media http://www.ourfcm.org/) are heading out to news organizations around KC to help collect the public political files. We will be posting them soon.
Completely off subject: that Rand Troll who posted a comment is amusing...I suspect those people have some form of autism. I wonder if they could be coaxed into a functional MRI for study...
#4 Posted by Doug, CJR on Thu 21 Jun 2012 at 07:58 PM