Utah Governor 'Honored' With Blackhole Award

The national Society of Professional Journalists plans to 'honor' Utah's Gov. Gary Herbert with the first-ever Black Hole award for a restrictive new open records law. From the article: "David Cuillier, SPJ's Freedom of Information Committee chief and a journalism professor at the University of Arizona, said he'll try to present the award to Herbert on Wednesday. The award, Cuillier said, is part of Sunshine Week, an annual initiative begun in 2002 to promote greater transparency in government. Nominations were gathered from around the country, but Cuillier said 'there was no question' the award should go to Herbert as the chief executive of the state."

Comments

Re:Blackmail on the highest level

[Penguinisto]

I disagree, as evidenced by multiple factors, including:

* The 1999 sale of a public street in Salt Lake City to the LDS Church w/o public input of comment (so that they could join their business building grounds to the Tabernacle) - it clogged up traffic, which continues to be a PITA to this day.

* The influence and money of the church in politicking for Prop 8 in California (no, not Utah... *California*).

* The sheer fact that in spite of comprising only 60% of the population, they have 98%+ representation in the Utah Legislature.

* Four words: Downtown Salt Lake City (the "Metro" - which replaced a once busy mall.)

* Two more: "Sugarhouse Renovation" (amazing how the one spot of non-LDS culture ---and the one home of many shops that offend LDS sensibility and/or morality-- gets forcefully, by government edict, torn down to make way for more beige stores... in spite of having a huge chunk of higher-traffic space to experiment with elsewhere in the metro area).

* The sad fate of the "Port O' Call" pub in downtown SLC... to make room for a courthouse, when there were larger and abandoned buildings that were *literally* across the street.

* The fact that the Utah state constitution itself has a clause in it that prevents any resident from suing the state on grounds of religious discrimination.

While LDS officials will obviously claim to not support particular candidates (they have to in order to retain non-profit status), you cannot, in the face of overwhelming evidence otherwise, claim with a straight face that they don't do politics. The above was just a very small sampling from memory... actual research will likely turn up far, far more results.