Why Does Christy Clark Want To Neuter The FOI Process?

Freedom'sJustAnotherWord

ForEverythingPolsDon'tWantToLoseVille

And why, as Sean Holman, the proprietor of PublicEye Online, who has selectively wielded FOI requests like a scalpel in the past, are British Columbia's media and public not outraged?

Last week, the Clark administration announced a major change in how it handles freedom of information requests....

{snippety doo-dah}

....(T)he government has made it more difficult for journalists at monthly magazines and weekly newspapers to reap that reward because it's now going to be publicly posting those records 72 hours after they give them to the applicant. In many cases, that will give daily and broadcast news outlets a chance to steal those stories before the weeklies and monthlies have a chance to publish them.

The media should be outraged by this policy. The media should be protesting this policy. And British Columbians should be concerned too because it impedes the market force that encourages the media to hold public institutions and officials to account. But, instead of protests, that policy has been greeted - for the most part - with silence. And perhaps that is an outrage in and of itself.

I agree.

It really is an outrage.

But.

As Ian Reid makes abundantly clear in his most recent post, most of the Lotuslandian proMedia that 'matters' relies heavily on runcible spoon-fed insider access for their front page/evening news stories.

So.

If there is no incentive to dig to get to the real heart of a story after considering all the unearthed evidence rather than just going with the pablum the Pol's and Flackhackery feed them, why should the august members of the proMedia that matters in this province care if little guy's like Holman get shut out?

Heckfire, you might even wonder if, like the Pols and Flacks, the august Matterers might actually have a vested interest in seeing folks like Mr. Holman or, say, this guy, disappear for good.

Which just might explain why none of those Matterers have kicked up a fuss about this FOI thing that could get the public riled up.

OK?

.