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The lesson to be learned: Before you push the button on the computer, make sure you know exactly what you’re sending out, and to whom.
At 6:20 p.m. today, someone in Gov. Charlie Crist’s press office—apparently accidentally—sent out an email to media outlets statewide listing all inquiries by reporters for the day to state agencies that report to the governor.
The email listed more than 100 requests from reporters to state agencies for the day, including what reporter called, what agency the reporter called, what information was requested and the response.
Who knew they even made up such a list?
Several Tribune reporters were included—Josh Poltilove asking the the Florida Department of Law Enforcement about a press conference on cold cases, Mikel Salinero inquiring about a letter from Mayor Pam Iorio objecting to a landfill in Pasco County and others.
Reporters, of course, normally like to keep what they’re doing under their hats. The email probably won’t blow a lot of scoops, but now everyone knows what everyone else is asking about.
Crist press spokeswoman Erin Isaac couldn’t immediately be reached for comment—most likely, her phone was busy with calls from the reporters listed on the email.
Tomorrow’s list of press calls should make interesting reading—but we probably won’t get to see it.
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Update: Only a few minutes after this was posted, Erin Isaac called and confirmed that the release of the daily press call list was indeed an accident, and apologized. The governor’s office makes up the list daily, she said, because it’s useful to government officials to learn the answers to questions being asked by reporters statewide.
I THOUGHT ALL EMAIL IN GOVERNMENT WAS PUBLIC RECORD, DUH!!!!!!!!! LET’S SEE IT!!!! SOEMBODY NEEDS TO MAKE A FOIA FS 119 REQUEST FOR THIS EMAIL AND PUBLISH IT.
Is it not very interesting that e-mails went out to the reporters at the tribune-but no one answered at the governors press office. Please let me know if you ever find out the mystery. We will call it The Mystery of the missing press calls.
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Posted by Robin Miller, Bradenton, Florida on 07/20 at 01:08 PM
Actually, under Florida’s “sunshine laws,” the governor’s daily list of media inquiries is public information anyway, available to any state resident for the asking.
So are the inquiries themselves once they’re on state-owned email servers.
Right on the Governor’s “Contact us” page, it says, “Please be aware that all information and comments that you submit on the email form below is, by law, subject to public disclosure.”
So what’s the news here? That public information was disclosed to some reporters?