Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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Freedom of information
‘Privacy right’ is closing records nationwide
With the public (and governments!) becoming increasingly
enamored of privacy and wary of those who collect information, newsgathering
is becoming more difficult
By Thomas Mitchell
In the propaganda war for the hearts and minds of Americans, local and
state governments have armed themselves with a new weapon to keep us pesky
journalists at bay: privacy.
You want to see the latest evaluation of your city manager? Sorry, that’s
a private personnel matter.
Want to see cellular phone records of county commissioners? No, they
contain private citizens’ phone numbers.
How much is some firefighter paid? Private, none of your business.
You want pet license records? Nope, they contain private phone numbers,
too.
We are getting such answers with stunning frequency. It is almost as
though stonewalling were being taught in government seminars: "How to Thwart
the Press and Public 101." Requests for accounting how public money is
spent and how public employees perform are being routinely shunted with
pious claims that such requests are personnel matters or just might, in
some vague way, intrude on someone’s privacy.
In Nevada, the government employee unions successfully defeated a press-backed
push to strengthen the state’s public records laws. The unions were horrified
that the public might gain access to their evaluations and discipline files,
much less their payrolls. Their appeal to the Legislature: Trust us.
In state after state, the courts are being closed. Judgments are sealed.
Jurors are serving in secret. All as a sop to "privacy."
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Many states claim their motor vehicle records are private, but then sell
that same information to junk mailers.
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In the same day’s editions recently, my own newspaper reported that a citizen
was arrested for pointing a gun at another person during an argument. But
an incident in which an off-duty police officer did the same thing was
declared a personnel matter and not subject to public scrutiny.
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A Virginia school board tried to seal documents about its firing of a school
superintendent, even though she had waived her right to confidentiality.
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Under Maryland law, personnel matters are closed to the public, with the
exception of salary information. In one suburban county, the annual setting
of goals for the superintendent is considered a personnel matter.
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In another Nevada case, a school board tried to seal an audit critical
of its special education division, saying the accusations of violations
of federal law by staffers were personnel matters.
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A Northern Virginia official wanted to post his county’s property assessments
on the Internet. There was a hue and cry, and he backed down.
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One of the favorite tricks of local governments is to commingle clearly
public records with clearly private information, then demand exorbitant
hourly fees for redacting the private data.
We probably have ourselves to blame for this state of affairs. We have
softened up our readers for this specious privacy argument with a paranoia-inducing
barrage of articles on omnipotent computer databases and fraud committed
by people with access to personal information.
The message to our readers: Privacy good. Snooping bad.
The average American wants to guard his or her own privacy and tends
to be sympathetic when those in government try to cloak their dealings
in the name of privacy. Seems only fair.
Newspapers are failing in our duty to punch holes in this base canard,
neglecting to tell our readers just how they can be damaged by a lack of
access.
Eighteenth century Scottish historian Alexander Tytler postulated: "A
democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist
until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess
out of the public treasury."
I would suggest this corollary: Democracy is in jeopardy when those
who hold the reins of government can, with impunity, hide from the public
their own largess, waste and patronage.
Government functionaries are usually well-intentioned people who can’t
seem to figure out how to say no to their fellow workers’ demands for more
money and benefits but can always find ever more imaginative and incremental
ways to extract more taxes and fees.
We in the press need to guard our franchise and role as the Fourth Estate
with stories and commentaries that convey the importance of public oversight.
How did the public learn about those expensive toilet seats on Air Force
planes?
Public records.
How did we discover that those 1,750-square-foot public employee houses
in Yosemite cost $584,000 each?
Public records.
How did we discover Bill Clinton and Al Gore used taxpayer financed
phones to solicit campaign donations? The same.
We need to remind readers that they are the bosses of USA Inc. They
are the shareholders of their cities and counties.
If the boss asks to see the phone bill, are you going to tell him it
is none of his business?
We are abdicating our role in this democratic society if we let down
our readers by not reminding them that they are the bosses and not pliant
servants of government. And we are jeopardizing our own financial futures
if we let local governments erode our access to information our readers
need.
The voters are the only ones who can oversee government and rein in
its largess.
We can vote people out of office when we don’t like what they are doing.
But first, you must know what they are doing. And that is the value of
public records and why it is important to resist this push for government
imposed "privacy." It serves our purposes and those of our readers.
Mitchell is editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
