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Ocala Star-Banner Cleansing effect of openness Few American politicians have been as ambivalent about the press as Thomas Jefferson. When midwifing a cluster of colonies to independent nationhood, Jefferson fervently believed in press freedom. For instance, in 1787 he wrote, "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." But the old Virginian's tune changed after he became president in 1801. Knocked around for a few years by the nattering nabobs he once admired, Jefferson wrote in 1807, "The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors." He added, "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle." Many people today no doubt share Jefferson's latter view. Poll after poll shows public trust in the media has greatly eroded. It's in large part a self-inflicted wound. Scandals such as those involving Dan Rather, Jayson Blair at the New York Times and Jack Kelley at USA Today helped sink credibility. The bar hasn't been raised by revelations of paid or unabashed cheerleaders like Armstrong Williams or Jeff Gannon. Despite the damage, watchdogs are a requisite in a free society. And to call attention to that role, the journalism world has dubbed today Sunshine Sunday. An idea first developed in 2002 by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors, it's been co-opted by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, which uses today as the beginning of its annual weeklong awareness-raising campaign about access to government information, or rather, the lack thereof. The public can benefit by taking an interest. The Citizen Access Project at the University of Florida's Brechner Center for Freedom of Information this weekend released the early results of the first comprehensive analysis of open-records laws nationwide. States were gauged by how they applied those laws in 30 categories. In short, the government still keeps a tight lid on public information, said Dr. Bill Chamberlin, the project director. In general, across the country officials deny the public access to information it has a right to about half the time. Not surprisingly, 9/11 and terrorism are part of the reason. The states followed the federal government's lead in that regard, Chamberlin said. States, however, are beginning to ease up a bit as 9/11 grows more distant. It's now privacy concerns that drive governments to continue to clamp down. Florida, which has a lengthy and laudable history of openness, presented an irony. Florida runs neck and neck with North Carolina in ease of opening the door to its information. But when the records are terrorism-related, the Sunshine State scores near the bottom. We understand the public might see this as simply a problem for the media. And we appreciate a need for heightened security when the whole world's a battlefield. But, in essence, this is everyone's problem. "The press cannot report unless they have access," Chamberlin said. "The public needs to know whether a school will be built on a toxic dump, the driving records of school bus drivers, where the government is changing zoning classifications." "They don't always think about it, but there are times when they need to know what the government's doing around them," he added. "Not everything ought to be open, but we try to fix things in this country after the press calls attention to a problem. Government officials are not always going to be the first ones to want to fix things." We couldn't have said it better. Jefferson likely remained somewhat bitter after leaving the White House. But his hostility seemed to subside. "The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." Think of easily available public records as another part of the government, like the police or fire departments. You may not need it every day, but you wouldn't want to be without them.
Reproduced courtesy
of the Ocala Star-Banner. |
