Editorial Roundup
Nov 17th, 2007 by dani_k
There was so much news this week that I decided to do a separate roundup just for editorials.
The Towanda Daily and Sunday Review says that the House has made a mockery of legislative reform. The Erie Times-News says the House ruined HB 443. and the Altoona Mirror asks their readers to demand openness in Pennsylvania.
The blog PSOTD writes that there must be a balance of content and format regarding emails.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote last Friday that “only the sausage grinders in the Pennsylvania House could make mincemeat out of legislation intended to bolster one of the lamest open-records laws in the nation.” Last Sunday, columnist Brad Bumsted chimed in on the email exemption, saying, “If they have nothing to hide, what’s the big deal about seeing their e-mail? We’re paying for the computers, the phone bills, their time (salary), their office rent, lights, perks — the works.”
The Reading Eagle thinks the House open records bill should be rejected.
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that Rep. Greg Vitali was “throwing a monkey wrench into efforts to improve Pennsylvania’s open-records law by insisting that officials’ e-mail be excluded from public scrutiny.” His letter to the editor in response read, in part:
“Making e-mail subject to public scrutiny will dampen their use. People who will be discouraged from using e-mail will include whistle-blowers, constituents with personal problems, public officials seeking information from controversial groups, public officials and issue advocates communicating negotiation tactics and strategies, and public officials making frank assessments of colleagues and employees.”
Using Rep. Vitali’s logic, wouldn’t the email exemption encourage crooked companies, corrupt public officials, and the like to use email exclusively? He says that most of the information the public wants isn’t available via email - and that may be a valid point - but what about the things they don’t know about? Haven’t we learned anything?
With editorials all around the state calling for open records reform and slamming legislators, the Centre Daily Tmes wrote not just one, but two editorials this week which are as close to optimistic as it gets in this climate. They cite the activist Tim Potts who says that Pennsylvania can be one of the top states for good government. The next day the paper wrote an editorial where they run down a long list of offenses by the Legislature and state agencies and ask, “Isn’t it time to demand public integrity in Harrisburg?”
We think so.