State of Alaska Prints Out Palin's E-Mails; Online Distribution 'Impractical'

ZipK writes "Three years after numerous citizens and news organizations requested the release of Sarah Palin's gubernatorial e-mails, the State of Alaska is finally making ready to make them available. In print. In Juneau. News organizations must fly or sail to Juneau and pick up the 24,000 page disclosure in person. The state claims it impractical to release the original electronic versions of the e-mails, so the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, Mother Jones, ProPublica and MSNBC each plan to turn some or all of the printouts back into searchable, easily distributed electronic data. Thanks, Alaska." Where's WikiLeaks North?

Comments

Striesand Effect

[ozmanjusri]

The state claims it impractical to release the original electronic versions of the e-mails

That's pretty good evidence of malfeasance all of it's own.

At least the journos now know there'll be a reason to collect and analyse all of those US Letter pages...

Re:WTF?

[webmistressrachel]

What's even more worrying is that there will be no way to prove anything was redacted or censored, or is or isn't the original unedited email. They will just release 25,000 pages of mundane drivel for journalists to pore through for months while she gets elected, but the really bad stuff was simply <SHIFT>> <DELETE> 'd before printing.

Re:WTF?

[TheGratefulNet]

if you or I tried to pull this shit, we'd wind up in jail for obstruction of justice.

the fact that she gets away with this means our system is broken. yet another red warning light that the revolution needs to happen and happen soon.

How do we handle government lies like this?

[erroneus]

I think just about EVERY person on Slashdot will disagree with the idea that print is easier than electronic. This is simply a lie from the state government. Which citizen's group do I send money to for the purpose of pushing legislation that requires the government is honest to the people. Lies like this should be actionable.

Re:How do we handle government lies like this?

[Monchanger]

How do we handle government lies like this?

Simple. You sue the state in court, just as if they had declined the FOIA requests outright. That's what the judicial branch is for- limiting the ability of the state to abuse its power.

Unless the judges there are completely corrupt, they would force at least a reasonable argument about why the state made the decisions to go with paper and in-person delivery (because they'd be ruled against with this idiotic claim), if not force the governor to release everything digitally.

Between the major newspapers and cable news outlets, the cost and effort would be minimal. All we need is competent journalism, which includes knowing the difference between things that really matter and the bullcrap which comprises most Palin-related "news".

...Which citizen's group do I send money to for the purpose of pushing legislation that requires the government is honest to the people. Lies like this should be actionable.

The legislation is already there. FOIA and related disclosure laws are thankfully in-place, though perhaps not as tough as we citizens would like. Trying to get better versions of the legislation is IMO a waste of time. Rather, I'd check out various campaign-reform groups, such as Lawrence Lessig's, and perhaps third-party/independent candidates.

Re:It's pretty simple

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It's almost as though somebody knows that they are legally obligated to release certain documents; but also knows that the law nowhere requires that they remove the gigantic stick from their ass before doing so(plus, public records laws often allow some sort of cost recovery fee, so printing them all out will allow you to stick it to those uppity 'journalists' and their 'transparency' to a much greater extent...)

I'm strongly suspecting that, unless s/he happens to be a kool-aid drinking Palinista, the relevant IT person probably yawned and had the stuff packaged up in 20 minutes(probably in an Outlook 2003 .pst; but electronic and easily internet-transmissible at least). The bitter; but legally obligated, records handling person then presumably took over...

Re:WTF?

[cthlptlk]

yet another red warning light that the revolution needs to happen and happen soon.

The revolution happened. We lost.

Re:It's pretty simple

[uniquename72]

running around and making fools of the media.

Is that what she's doing? I thought she was making fools of herself, her family, and her followers.

And, of course, as a conservative (NON-Republican), I see this as just another case of Big Government ignoring the spirit of the law and not doing the will of the people. Let me add this little bit of "fuck you, voters!" to the list of reasons why none of these people can be trusted.

And the fact that your buddies Cain, Perry, and Bachman are too terrified to criticize this move speaks volumes for their principles and priorities.

How much are they hiding?

[Radtastic]

Paper format also makes it easier to hide anything that has been 'lost' in the printing-to-paper process.