You want access. They've got answers

From NINA's Spring 2010 newsletter:

Two of the state’s foremost experts on the Illinois Freedom of Information Act will headline NINA’s April 23 Spring Conference at NIU-DeKalb.

The conference kicks off a year of NINA training with emphasis on journalists’ access to public information.

Cara Smith, public access counselor for the Illinois Attorney General’s office, and Beth Bennett, governmental relations director for the Illinois Press Association, will talk about Illinois’ Freedom of Information Act. They’ll help journalists understand recent changes – and challenges – to the law.

“Too often, officials build walls so that the public can’t get the information it deserves,” said Wally Haas, NINA first vice president and editorial page editor of the Rockford Register Star. “Beth Bennett and Cara Smith will tell you how to break those barriers and get the information you and your readers are entitled to.”

Registration is just $10 for NINA members and journalists from member newspapers.

Smith joined Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s staff in 2003. Most recently serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Communications, she has been integrally involved in the development and implementation of many initiatives, including spearheading the rewrite of the State’s FOIA. Previously, she served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Governmental Representation Division of the office, from 1992 to 1997.

Bennett has held her IPA post since joining the association in 1987. Prior to joining the IPA, she served for four years as the Legislative Liaison for the Illinois General Assembly’s oversight committee, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Her responsibilities at the IPA include lobbying on behalf of Illinois newspapers, as well as, working with IPA members on issues of industry concern. Those issues include: employment and environmental regulation, access laws, public notice requirements, advertising law and tax issues specific to newspapers and commercial printers.

Bennett also serves as the Illinois Freedom of Information (Sunshine) Chair for the Society of Professional Journalists.

Spring Conference Details

When: Friday, April 23, 2010


Time: 9 a.m. to noon

Where: Holmes Student Center, Room 305, NIU-DeKalb

Cost: $10 for NINA members and employees of member newspapers. $20 for nonmembers. Light breakfast will be provided.

Parking: $5. Use the NIU visitor lot off Lincoln Highway (Illinois 38).

To register: Contact Jim Killam, 815-753-4239. Registration deadline is Friday, April 16. Pay at the door on the day of the workshop.

Sun shines on city councils, too

A column from NINA's Spring 2010 newsletter:

A nice piece of news found its way to DeKalb, appropriately enough, during Sunshine Week. Turns out, if you apply for a job as an alderman, the public gets to know that.


The cities of both Chicago and DeKalb argued recently that the names of citizens applying to fill aldermanic vacancies should not be made public. DeKalb’s city officials claimed that disclosure of these names – just the names, mind you, not phone numbers, shoe sizes or any other personal data – would constitute “a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy for applicants for an appointed or elected position.” Chicago took an almost identical position.

Let me see if I have this right. In the minds of these city leaders, people should be able to seek public office without the public knowing about it. Anyone see a slight problem there?

In DeKalb, both the Daily Chronicle and the Northern Star filed two Freedom of Information Act requests for the lists of names in the two wards with vacant city council seats. The city then referred those requests to the Illinois Attorney General’s Public Access Counselor, Cara Smith.

Smith’s response to both DeKalb and Chicago was basically: Knock it off. Here’s an excerpt from her letter to DeKalb’s city clerk:

“In this case, the City has failed to establish either that disclosure of the applicants’ names would be highly personal or objectionable to a reasonable person or that the applicants’ right to privacy outweighs any legitimate public interest in obtaining information about the people seeking appointment to this public office. City aldermen are public officials who represent the residents of their ward on the City Council. Once appointed, aldermen who wish to remain in the position eventually must submit valid nominating petitions to qualify for the ballot and be elected by voters of their ward. As a result, when this public office becomes vacant, citizens have a legitimate interest in knowing who has applied for the position so that they may evaluate whether the individuals are qualified to represent a particular ward and discern why one applicant was appointed over others. It is precisely this public scrutiny of public officials that the General Assembly had in mind in enacting FOIA.”

So, common sense and seventh-grade civics win the day. Sort of. The system still has imperfections, chiefly the time lag. The Northern Star’s first FOIA request, for names of those seeking one of the seats – was sent to the city Dec. 16, 2009. Smith’s response to the city was dated March 16, 2010 – three months later. At that point, the city released both lists of names. But in the meantime two new aldermen had been recommended by the mayor and approved by the city council, before the public ever knew the names of the other applicants.

The Public Access Counselor’s is a small office with a huge case load. We in the media understand that. That case load, though, may point to the real issue: a state whose political culture has encouraged anything but government transparency, and a citizenry that is fed up with it.

Throughout this disagreement, I never heard anyone suggest that DeKalb was hiding anything scandalous. What elected officials need to understand, though, is that when they withhold information with obviously flawed arguments, the public begins to wonder if they are hiding something.

Anyone can file a FOIA request, of course, but a FOIA from a news organization packs a much larger wallop, because of the likelihood that the whole community will see the results. When we use FOIA often, we’re placing our local units of government on notice that we’re paying attention.


NINA’s April 23 Spring Conference brings Smith and the Illinois Press Association’s Beth Bennett to NIU-DeKalb, to discuss the status of FOIA law reform in Illinois. Please come. Bring others from your newspaper, too. Our watchdog function is our most vital role, and FOIA is one of our most valuable tools. With the constant thought of keeping our communities informed, let’s not hesitate to increase the attorney general’s workload if necessary.

Yes, those names are public

Good news on a public-records issue I mentioned a while back. On advice from the Illinois Attorney General, the city of DeKalb has released the names of citizens who applied for two vacant aldermanic seats. The city had sought to keep those names private. The Northern Star and Daily Chronicle had contended the information is public.

In case you are dealing with a similar issue, here's the letter from the Illinois Attorney General's office to the city of DeKalb, advising them to comply with the Northern Star's FOIA request.

Discount on Design Webinar

NINA members get a $10 discount on Tuesday's Poynter Webinar, "Best in Design: Lessons from SND Competition 2010." If you're interested, contact me for the discount code.

Beautiful women make skateboarding more dangerous

Not sure how much this has to do with journalism, but it's funny. New psychological research "found that male skateboarders took more risks when in the presence of an attractive woman."

In other breaking news, researchers have determined that the world is round.

Censoring the censorship debate

Here's a Daily Herald story with the latest on the Stevenson High School censorship case. Apparently sunshine doesn't always shed a lot of light.

Speaking of sunshine, if you haven't already bookmarked the site, here's the link to the new Sunshine Illinois site.

Study: Powerful people are better liars

Interesting story from MSNBC. A study shows that people in power make better liars. Good reading for journalists.

"There's nothing here but words"

The Onion has had a good week. Here's a story for editors and designers: Nation Shudders at Large Block of Uninterrupted Text.

More about millennials

The Pew Research Center has released its latest research about the millennial generation. Fascinating stuff.

How come no one thought of this before?

More impact from the newspaper industry's decline, from The Onion.

No secret candidates

The Illinois Attorney General's office has said cities cannot keep secret the names of applicants for city council positions after an alderman resigns. Story.

So much for the dodge about "personal privacy." It's getting so you can't run for public office in Illinois without the public knowing about it ...

Closed minds?

Interesting quote this past weekend from Rob Curley, new media editor at the Las Vegas Sun, speaking to a college media convention in Phoenix:

"The most closed-minded journalists I've met are the ones who just graduated."

That could be due to their lack of confidence as rookies, or that their college might have been woefully behind in teaching new media, or youthful idealism that says, "Dammit, Bones, I'm a writer, not a Web jockey."

At any rate, we will try to do our part here to prove Rob wrong. But I'm afraid in many cases he's right.

Your own private sports writer

Here's an interesting approach reported on ESPN.com: a baseball writer employed directly by his readers.

Ever wanted to have a say in the makeup of your morning sports report? Or just have someone personally ask Washington Nationals pitcher and New Jersey native Jason Bergmann what he thinks of "Jersey Shore"? Then meet Mark Zuckerman. A 33-year-old baseball writer from suburban D.C., Zuckerman is covering the Nationals during spring training in Viera, Fla. -- coverage made possible by reader donations to his team blog.


As in more than $10,000 in reader donations, collected in less than a month, $20-60 at a time.

Authors speaking Thursday in Chicago

Robert McChesney and John Nichols, authors of the fascinating new book, “The Death and Life of American Journalism,” are speaking at two different venues in Chicago this Thursday, March 4.


DePaul University 1:30-3 p.m. --The lecture will be held from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at DePaul’s College of Communication lower-level theatre space, 14 E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago. Thursday afternoon:

57th Street Books: 6 p.m. Thursday March 4. 1301 E. 57th St., Chicago.

If you’re a journalist and have not read this book, you should. You may not agree with everything the authors propose. Even if you don't, this is the most complete explanation I've seen of how newspapers reached the crisis we're in today, and the options we now face.