Chicago Sun Times Editorial: Daley comes out swinging at press

Chicago Sun Times Editorial: Daley comes out swinging at press
Copyright by The Chicago Sun Times
May 14, 2010
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/2271668,CST-EDT-edit14a.article


Is Mayor Daley trying to give the press grief? You bet.
Can we complain?

Not much.

On Daley's order, City Hall on Thursday began posting online all requests for government documents under the Freedom of Information Act -- the lifeblood of investigative reporters.

Now every reporter in town -- and anybody else with a computer -- can immediately check daily what every other reporter in town is looking into.

Our fear is that this will create a chilling effect on the press' ability to uncover public corruption.

Daley says he's posting all FOIA requests online for no other reason than "transparency" -- let's have no secrets from the public.

But we're pretty sure this is payback time.

The media -- and most especially the Chicago Sun-Times -- have made Daley's life miserable over the years with a slew of explosive investigations, some of which have led to prison time for allies of the mayor and high-ranking city employees.

That said, it's simply impossible for a newspaper, as a champion of the free flow of information, to object to any policy that makes public records more accessible.

We would look like -- we would be -- hypocrites.

FOIA requests already were public information. Even before they were dumped online Thursday, they could be viewed by anybody willing to walk over to City Hall and fill out a FOIA request to look at other FOIA requests.

We've always thought that was a bad policy, by the way, a confusing of apples and oranges. A request for government information should not be treated as government information itself.

We expect the ease with which anybody can now view every FOIA request in town -- with a click of a computer key -- will alter the strategies reporters and others use in filing their requests.

They may use broader language, so as to hide their specific interest. They may file many more requests to create a diversion.

And City Hall may find itself swamped in trying to fulfill these broader and more numerous requests.

We shall see.

But we already know this:

The best reporters in Chicago -- and there are many -- will not be deterred.