Journalists' requests for public records are met at times with Clinton-esque exercises of sophistry.
Author: Frank LoMonte
How a bill un-becomes a law — people power derails Utah’s FOI railroad
The speed with which Utah's legislators dismantled one of the nation's best public-records laws was breathtaking.
The Great Utah Railroad Job: An FOI setback, and a challenge
POLICE REPORT: At approximately 16:30 hours on March 4, 2011, the people of Utah were robbed. The suspects are a pair of white males, and their mug shots and rap sheets appear here and here. The weapon, House Bill 477, is in the custody of the governor.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Payday for university employees can pay off in newsworthy stories
Let's face it, we're all curious to know who's got the biggest one on campus.Salary, of course. What employees are paid at state colleges and universities is a matter of public record, and obtaining the information today often is as easy as an online search.As blogger Dan Reimold of College Media Matters reports, the University of Illinois' student newspaper, the Daily Illini, markedly increased its online traffic by adding the feature of an employee salary guide where, by depressing one button, debt-burdened students can depress themselves over football coach Ron Zook's $1.06 million salary.Many professional news websites offer state salary data searchable by the employee's name, title or function.
Unconventional Supreme Court case could turn First Amendment protection AGAINST government overreaching into protection FOR government overreaching
The Supreme Court will hear arguments April 27 in a First Amendment case with exceedingly high stakes for the legality of open-government statutes across the country.If the Court agrees with the reasoning of the Nevada Supreme Court in the case of Commission on Ethics of the State of Nevada v.
This month’s SPLC podcast: Mississippi court allows broadcast of leaked footage shot inside juvenile prison
A persistent misperception that hampers journalists’ ability to do their jobs – one that many journalists themselves share – is that it’s against the law to publish images and information about minors without parental consent.One of the sources of this myth is journalists’ own practice of voluntarily concealing the identities of child subjects.
Humor us — take steps to prevent comedy from becoming tragedy
“Dying is easy – comedy’s hard.” The origin of the Hollywood aphorism is murky, but its truth is undeniable.
April 15 may be America's annual day of dread, but for those who advise student publications, it's April 1 -- the day that hundreds of Sara Silverman wannabes find out that they're much less funny than they think they are.
Student journalists at Columbia University got off to an early start this year.
Paint these school administrators’ faces red
A student paints a wish for Iranian freedom on a bench that has been approved for students' artistic and expressive use. Administrators disapprove of the political message, and have it painted over. Students then protest by painting an appeal for freedom of speech. And ... oh, you're way ahead of me on this.
#SJW11: Happy Scholastic Journalism Week — You are, each one of you, beautiful
Each day during Scholastic Journalism Week, the staff of the Student Press Law Center is going back to school -- blogging about the impact student media had on their own embryonic lives.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Public records can open doors — and show you who’s opening which doors
State law makes government "records" subject to public inspection, and for most people that conjures up the image of stacks of manila-filed paper documents.