An appropriate Independence Day tribute

I thought this was a really interesting and cool opinion piece in USA Today. It gives a quick history lesson on an aspect of the Declaration of Independence many of us may rarely think of – its printing.

Antonio Perez makes heroes of John Dunlap and Mary Katherine Goddard, calling them the “Founding Printers” for their roles in making the document available to hundreds. The moniker places them up there with the likes of Thomas Jefferson.

Mass communication has come a long way since then. And the Internet obviously has revolutionized it. But in 1776, printing and distributing was not only a much more rigorous process, it was dangerous. Dunlap and Goddard could have been put to death for being traitors against England.

We journalists, I think, particularly owe a debt of gratitude and remembrance today to these two historical characters. Another interesting note about Goddard: she ran a Baltimore newspaper called the “Maryland Journal.” Thanks to Perez, too, for bringing a history lesson to life.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy birthday, FOIA... but who's celebrating?

Appropriately, the federal Freedom of Information Act turns 40 tomorrow -- Independence Day, if you had forgotten.

We journalists love the fact that Sunshine Laws exist, and we hope you do, too. Because they don't exist just for people who make a living disseminating information; they're for the public. Which does happen to include us. And you.

Several Times reporters got to take a course this past week dealing with accessing public information and analyzing it in databases, so it is fresh in our minds.

But recent studies suggest FOIA isn't necessarily working as intended. This article from Editor & Publisher says there are some FOIA requests from the REAGAN ADMINISTRATION (that ended when I was in kindergarten) that have gone unanswered. Wow. Louisiana law allows three days for agencies to comply with a records request, so 20 years seems like a really long time. Read our law here. And here is a funnily written blog from Wired about this not-so-funny problem.

The federal government is paying for a FOIA study at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio so maybe that will further the cause of access. But as you can read, not everyone is hopeful.

I talk to people all the time who take the ignorance-is-bliss approach. I don't. What do you think?

Challenge: While you pop some fireworks in the next 24 hours, try to think of some public information you could ask for related to our favorite mini-explosives and put it here in a comment. This sounds like class, huh?