West Virginia Won't Release Broadband Report Because It Is 'Embarrassing' 183
An anonymous reader writes "The Charleston Gazette is reporting that the state of West Virginia hired a consulting firm for over $100,000 to investigate the state's use of Federal stimulus money (which included the purchase of $22,000 routers for tiny buildings). Unfortunately, the state government is now refusing a FOIA request to release the firm's report. The reason? The findings 'might be embarrassing to some people,' according to Commerce Secretary Keith Burdette."
Typo in summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (Score:5, Insightful)
how is that even a legal reason to refuse a Freedom of Information request? Last I checked, "we don't want to" isn't an acceptable reason to refuse.
Too Bad (Score:2, Insightful)
That's not a legitimate reason to refuse request under FOIA.
In fact, it's explicitly not a legitimate reason.
Re:Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (Score:5, Insightful)
and embarrassing the government is the whole point of FOIA, so they stop doing things to embarrass themselves.
Re:Typo in summary (Score:5, Insightful)
Possibly, but not necessarily, or at least, not primarily. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is the one witholding the information. He's an elected official whose job is probably more to collect campaign contributions than to actually serve the public.
He very likely discussed the content of that report with the "parties" he is protecting, and was told exactly where he wasn't going to be receiving any more money from if that evaluation wasn't buried. He's probably very well aware that it's going to get pried out of his hands and plastered on page 1 eventually, but this will at least give him a "but I tried to stop it!" when those parties blow up his phone, and he's hoping this will at least do a little damage control.
But things like that can turn and bite you. This may be a very big thorn in his side, come election day. Depending on how close the competition is, his opposition may drag this issue back above ground for a month of mud slinging. But money can really help to bury things. Depends on how much he can throw at it, and how deep it needs to go.
"Never give a man a gun unless you know where he's going to point it." Same goes for inviting in a team of investigators to get to the bottom of any mess you are even remotely related to. You'd better either make sure you're squeaky clean, or make sure their opinion is already properly paid for.
Re:West Virginia is the butt... (Score:5, Insightful)
I too honor the brave and ethical stance made by the WV leadership 150 years ago. However zero of that honor is conveyed to people simply because they happen to currently inhabit the same geographic area.
This was obvious from the start (Score:3, Insightful)
If the federal government was going to bring broadband to West Virginia, they should have gone in and installed it. Handing money to a Red State government for technology is like handing the remote control to your dog.
Come to think of it, I'd expect more from the dog.
Re:West Virginia is the butt... (Score:5, Insightful)
The #1 reason was the same sort of divisive party politics that continues to this day, with the same party names even. You know what the Republican fringe was saying about Obama during the last elections? That was pretty much what the Democrats were saying about Lincoln, except replace "socialism" with "abolitionism".
Looks to me like it was the south that made slavery the issue on which they opposed Lincoln; divisive politics based on slavery...
Then there was the whole movement from rural, agriculture-based societies to urban, industrial society. Always a cause for major upheaval. And guess what? East Virginia was mostly agricultural, and West Virginia was mostly coal mines (and thus economically aligned with the Northern cities they fueled).
Slavery was part of that; industrial societies don't work so well with outright slave labour. Agricultural societies often do - or at least, more primitive ones based on large plantations.
Re:Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't the very reason this FOIA thing was put together, was to force governments to release information they are reluctant to release for that very reason?
Re:This is what newspapers are for (Score:3, Insightful)
It's all well and good to be against shredding live puppies, but do we really want to bring back the Nazi party in order to use it to protect the puppies? I mean, I think we can agree that would be worse, right? Right?!?
Re:This is what newspapers are for (Score:4, Insightful)
We've already lost that. There are hardly any hard-nosed beat-reporters out there. Journalism in 2013 (and for most of the last fifteen years) has consisted of pulling down and repeating the AP feed and rehashing PR faxes.
Re:West Virginia is the butt... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:FOIA (Score:5, Insightful)
Releasing it might put Government Officials and Elected Representatives' lives at risk.....when the general population see how poorly they've handled things.