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Sunshine Sunday has come and gone, and never has journalism done a finer job of putting a human face on what can be a somewhat abstract right – the right to know.
I am truly amazed by the breadth of coverage for Sunshine Week. The stories piled up until there were simply too many to read, and I am still pulling them from my e-mail.
In the wake of what has widely been described as an avalanche of secrecy, Andy Alexander, of Cox Newspapers and president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and ASNE’s Debra Gersh Hernandez pulled off the cat-herding necessary to move hundreds of American newspapers in the same direction at once. It was a stunning effort, the most prolonged, focused attention on FOI issues that any of us can recall.
One of my favorites was Marjie Lundstrom’s piece in the March 17 Sacramento Bee, which introduced readers to Rich McKee, “a Southern California man with a head for the law, a heart for justice and a nose for government officials with secrets.
“McKee, a 56-year-old chemistry professor at Pasadena City College, is a tireless crusader from La Verne who has sued 17 government entities in Southern California for trying to shut out citizens.
“His track record: 12 wins, two losses, three cases pending.” McKee is emblematic of something I read a lot about during Sunshine Week: citizens using the same tools we use to do our jobs, only at their expense, and on their time off.
If I had a nickel for every time a journalist called me, asked about the availability of a record and then said something along the lines of “it sounds like a lot of work …” or “I’ll never get the records, will I?”…, well, I wouldn’t be wealthy, but I’d be carrying around a lot of nickels. Folks like Rich McKee should remind us all that the battle is half the fun, and that surrender is not an option.
By the way, Lundstrom’s piece ended with this tidbit: “McKee’s youngest child, a high school senior who lives with his dad in La Verne, recently completed his senior project on – of all things – public records, auditing 52 agencies.”
The next time a state lawmaker says that FOI is “special interest legislation for journalists,” put him in touch with McKee.
Or have him call Kathryn Allen, who The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described in a March 13 story as a “hater of secrets.”
Retired now from the Georgia Attorney General’s office, Allen served for years as the voice of reason in the AG’s office as it advanced open government and began a mediation program aimed at broadening access to records. Lori Johnston’s excellent story – one of many the AJC did before and during Sunshine Week – put a face on government policy, telling a story about one of the many good people we can thank for the access we enjoy at the state level.
That’s one of the great ironies of Sunshine Week: In state after state, some reporter came to the startling conclusion, whether saying so or not, that the states are now the hopeful province of greater openness, their federal counterparts growing more secretive with each passing day.
The AJC also did a great job using a pending FOI battle – this one over a truly terrible bill to exempt negotiations among city, county and state economic development officials and business prospects. In a story based in exurban Bartow County, northwest of Atlanta, reporter Jeffry Scott let the story unfold:
“Today, as the Georgia Senate takes up a bill allowing government to keep secret its negotiations with business prospects, people in this North Georgia town will be watching with the eyes of those who have been kept in the dark.
“Emerson was founded 125 years ago as a mining center. Trains roll through the center of town carrying coal to nearby Plant Bowen, rated as one of the dirtiest power plants in North America. A pesticide plant operates here, as does a company that makes explosives. Just outside the city is the Bartow County Landfill.
“Waste industry giant BFI is proposing to build another landfill on 1,100 acres of nearby land that is cratered with old mining digs. Locals say BFI and the city have come in on the sneak.
“‘We’re tired of Emerson and Bartow County being used as the dumping ground for industry,’ said Brenda Tidwell, a founder of Alliance for a Better Bartow, which claims about 200 members who organized last fall to fight the landfill…
“In Emerson, Tidwell said that only through open records requests by her group and the Bartow County Commission, which also opposes the new landfill, have they been able to get sketchy details of the deal.
”Making FOI real is a tough task, but the AJC’s stories do just that, bringing to life the hefty price tag attached to secrecy. As of press time, the bill closing economic development negotiations was stalled in the Georgia State Senate.
In case you missed it, Sunshine Week also broke some news: A new survey commissioned for Sunshine Week found that seven out of 10 Americans are concerned about government secrecy, and more than half think there’s not enough access to public records.
Journalists should keep Sunshine Week in mind all year. As the wave of publicity fades, expect quiet but firm opposition to the FOI bills in Congress, and expect the usual wave of exemptions in statehouses across the nation. Back to work we go, with fresh evidence of the importance of FOI in our back pockets.
