OUTSIDE PERSPECTIVES

I began my career as a journalist in one of the most difficult times for us in the business. 

My first assignment, while I was still in college, was covering a presidential candidate who would tour the country making outlandish comments about the media being nothing but fake news. 

I covered countless political rallies while working as a reporter for my college’s media outlets, in partnership with the Boston Herald. 

I was covering the Presidential election in New Hampshire and elsewhere for over a year before I was old enough to drink my first beer. 

It was fun. It was exciting going toe to toe, trying to get the best interviews with members of Congress, other politicians at the national political conventions.

I had many assignments; I was a contributor to the Boston Herald’s radio station, I would record video clips of protests and speeches, conduct interviews with various politicians, write stories, and even some columns, all for one of the biggest newspapers in the country. 

While doing this, I learned a lot of lessons. 

One I didn’t learn much of, however, was the importance of public records. 

Let me explain. 

When you are at these political conventions, rallies, or other high profile political events, and you have a microphone, politicians, naturally, are going to be willing to talk to you. 

For many of the people there, one of their main jobs was to act as delegates for the party, or for the candidate they were there to support. 

Now my job is much different. 

A lot of times, when reporters contact sources, whether politicians, government officials, or other people, they are willing to talk to us.

But there are many times when they simply won’t or will provide the most vague answers possible. 

The main way, to find out the truth, is by getting a hold of public records ourselves. 

In Minnesota, this is called a Data Practices Act request. 

Over the past couple of years, I have been publicly accused of making bogus requests, and all sorts of other things, for simply doing my job. 

If the government is not going to hand over information willingly, reporters, or at least the ones I want to work with, aren’t going to go away. 

We are going to compile the government to turn over records. 

As some found out this fall, nice try getting me to go away, by trying to publicly shame me. 

It is why it was so refreshing a couple of weeks ago, to help organize, and host a First Amendment Clinic through the organization I am on the board of directors on; The Minnesota Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists. 

This idea first started actually this fall, when one of the committees I am on, was looking at different events to host. 

As I was working through being publicly attacked for doing a data request, I met a man named Don Gemberling. 

Gemberling is now retired, but spent over 30 years at the Minnesota Department of Administration, where he helped to not only write the DPA, he also helped to enforce and interpret it.

He by all extensive purposes, is considered the far most expert on it in the State. 

Gemberling continues to help promote open government. I got in contact with him, and he helped reassure me, I was not some sort of monster for doing my job, and instead everyone has the opportunity to do data requests. 

Reporters do not have any kind of special privilege when it comes to accessing public records. 

We are required to go through the same process as anyone else in the public. We do not get any special privileges when it comes to costs being waived. We do not get a different timeline. 

So, I suggested, it would be great to have an event, where we can invite members of the public and journalists, to come together, to learn from an expert.

We had the event in Mankato, and Gemberling was the keynote panelist. 

We had about 15 people there, who were not on the board. 

All but one, were members of the public, with various interest levels. 

They all had one thing in common. They want to get information from various government agencies, and they want to become more informed about how the Data Practices Act works. 

We had to cut the formal presentation off after two and a half hours of engaged lively conversation. 

If we did not cut it off, it is possible it would go on for hours longer. 

This was so refreshing to me. 

It is very clear, there are many people who want to keep tabs on what their government agencies are doing, but many people are unaware of how to go about it. 

This is a shame. 

Our hope as an organization is to help continue to host these events all around the state and help inform the public on how they have the right to learn what their government is up to. 

I will be doing my part by continuing to do data requests whether it makes government officials mad or not.