I
have an issue with the way news media present such rosy prospects for
FOIA each year during Sunshine Week. Year after year, optimism is
based, not on new ideas to improve FOIA being enacted into law, but
merely on a new bill with a short shelf life being introduced or
reported out of committee.
The
ballyhoo over the Issa-Cummings FOIA implementation bill taken up by
the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee just in time
for this past Sunshine Week comes to mind. Publicizing that is like
awarding a soldier the Congressional Medal of Honor for telling what he might do in combat someday.
Just
as bad or worse, news organizations downplay or ignore efforts to
inhibit open government. A recent example would be proposals put
forward by the Michigan State Court Administrative Office.
In
RICO cases, the cast of characters consists of three types: (1)
racketeers, often con artists, (2) dupes exploited as false fronts and
(3) victims. Sunshine Week works in a similar fashion. Legislators,
press and public.
Let’s hope that annual celebrations by the press of wobbly legislative hints of reform haven’t become a meaningless ritual. If next year’s Sunshine Week is going to be any different, now is the time to start planning for it.
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