Time's Steinmetz Grouses About Way Alaska Governor Released Palin E-mails
Perhaps peeved that her weekend was wasted on the nothing-burger that was the release of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's official e-mail correspondence, Time magazine's Katy Steinmetz yesterday directed her ire at current Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell (R) for dumping the e-mails on reporters in cumbersome printed form rather than in electronic files:
The amount of money the state of Alaska and news organizations are spending on the Sarah Palin e-mails — copying costs, shipping costs (or flight costs), man-hour costs, and opportunity costs — should inspire some skull-clutching. It’s all the more extravagant considering how much of the content has been redacted, how old the e-mails are and how long the government of Palin loyalist Sean Parnell had to cut out the juicy bits. But the whole fiasco could have been streamlined if Parnell’s people embraced the spirit of the state’s public records law and provided electronic copies of the e-mails rather than printing them out.
The Alaskan public records code recommends doing the opposite of what the governor’s office decided to do, though it doesn’t command it (emphasis mine):
A public agency may provide electronic services and products involving public records to members of the public. A public agency is encouraged to make information available in usable electronic formats to the greatest extent feasible.
So why, one might ask, did the Alaskan government turn thousands of e-mails into paper records, which news organizations have been busy scanning back into electronic form?
Steinmetz quickly laid out her conspiracy theory that Gov. Parnell pursued this method of release just to stick it to reporters (emphasis mine):
Looking to the letter of the law, it’s hard to imagine anyone bold enough to argue that it was more “feasible” for the government workers to print and copy all these e-mails than to leave them in electronic form. It was, however, much, much more costly for everyone involved. And this logical conundrum pushes us toward a more cynical answer: that they turned them into paper copies simply because they could.
Public records guru Charles Davis, an associate professor at the University of Missouri, imagines the mentality thus: “We’re going to produce paper records, and the paper’s going to cost you more money, it’s going to take up more physical space, and it’s going to be less useful to you. But that’s what the law says we can do, so we’ll do it.”
Though the process wasn’t Sarah Palin’s call, it does fall in line with her make-the-media-earn-it mentality. Palin declined to provide the press with a schedule of stops during her recent bus tour and told Greta Van Susteren that the media should “have to do a little bit of work.” It seems Parnell has taken that page out of the Palin playbook.
- Ken Shepherd's blog
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Comments
Just like the Obamacare bill
Submitted by JeffC... on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:32am.
We had to pass it so we could see it, but the document release was in a format such that it was unsearchable. (Was it as an image file?)
Besides, what's wrong with making a bunch of jerk reporters do their damn jobs?
Read the Health Care Bill
Submitted by libBuster on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:03am.
I wish reporters had been as dilgent about reading the Helath Care Bill. But as Pelosi said, you have to pass it to see whats in it.
Waaaahhhhhh!
Submitted by almostacowboy on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:42am.
Oh, I'm sorry. Let me rephrase that; Waaaaahhhhhhh!
Her complaint is that no one created any dirt for her to report.
Steinmetz is not only a whiner, she's lazy
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 1:18pm.
I would never give electronic media to the MSM if I could help it. It's too easy for them to tamper with it and create faux-documents.
Giving it to the MSM in hard copy reminds me of those stories wherein someone pays off a huge debt with bags of pennies. You want it bad enough, here it is.
Paying with pennies
Submitted by Model850 on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 3:21pm.
Believe it or not, in some places a person who "pays off a huge debt with bags of pennies" can end up in trouble.
Admittedly this wasn't a "huge debt" and it was only one bag, but still.....
And after the treatment the "media" gave Palin
Submitted by IgnatzJFahrquar on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:42am.
these buffoons wondering are why the info was released like it was? Hell, I would have made sure they were not collated in any way, either.
They are just mad....
Submitted by tvhall on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:43am.
Because it will require them to work later a few nights and delay them getting to bed with their senior democratic official lover.
Both scum of the earth I tell you!
Either that or it's more
Submitted by okie-pastor on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 12:25pm.
Either that or it's more difficult to doctor printed emails.
That's what I'm thinking
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 1:17pm.
You have to be concerned with tampering.
I would've printed them out in red ink on red cardstock.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:48am.
Have a Happy Headache, you bastards.
$$ for the Alaska economy
Submitted by mom_rox on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 10:58am.
well played, Gov.
New Make Believe Media meme:
Submitted by Free Stinker on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:02am.
New Make Believe Media meme: The incriminating stuff was redacted.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
It does my heart good
Submitted by Kenyon Schraeder on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:32am.
To see a bloodthirsty gang of rabid wolves frantically chase a ghost through a late-summer cornfield. And, quite laughably, THEY firmly believe they are the intellectually astute ones among us! Not even the self-aggrandized liberals in Hollywood could write a better script than what the Palin emails already have.
Damned if you do. . .
Submitted by rickbren on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:36am.
. . .damned if you don't. What did they need ANY emails for, anyway?????
Time ragazine
Submitted by jessieH on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:40am.
Somebody call her a wambulance! Can't these fools do anything else besides bitch?
Sounds like a typical high
Submitted by rwesley2.0 on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:42am.
Sounds like a typical high school twit who gets peeved because they have to hand write a reoprt instead of typing it on Word (i.e. - cut and paste).
Grow up, loser
Submitted by optimist on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 11:50am.
'nuff said.
Hahaha!
Submitted by MightyMouth on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 12:31pm.
These people would complain if we hung 'em with an brand new rope! I guess scanners and OCR software hasn't improved much in the last 10 years?
Cry me a river
Submitted by katiejane on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 12:40pm.
Boo hoo, poor little media people had to actually exert some effort in their witch hunt.
What did she want?
Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 1:12pm.
The juicy parts highlighted in red ink? What a liberal maroon!
Freaking MBM Crybabies
Submitted by Free Stinker on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 1:17pm.
WAH ! Sarah Palin wrote a book!
WAH ! Sarah Palin is doing a reality TV show!
WAH ! Sarah Palin built a taller fence in her back yard!
WAH ! Sarah Palin won't tell us where her bus is going!
WAH ! Sarah Palin's emails are printed on paper.
/// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 /// خال
Boo Flippin Hoo
Submitted by KornKing on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 1:48pm.
Poor clowns have to actually do some work instead of googling
What about the missing month???
Submitted by bigdaddy on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 1:50pm.
Heard on the news this AM that there was a whole month missing. Of course Sarah Palin would never hold back one month of her 250 lbs of printed e-mails just to drive the MSM crazy. She's not that smart, is she???
Another possible reason for supplying printed form
Submitted by Pharmer on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 2:02pm.
There's the suggestion that Parnell did it just to jerk the Palin hating journalists around. If so, that's hilarious.
But another reason is that electronic redactions sometimes don't work. From various programs you can copy paste a redacted document into word pad, and the printed stuff under the electronically produced black lines will reappear again.
Poor Katy...she actually had to do her job.
Submitted by drsamherman on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 3:24pm.
She actually had to sift through documents. She had to drop her nail file and stop sipping her double-shot mocha latte. And horror of horrors...she might have missed a hair appointment.
What nightmares lie ahead?! Could it be she might have to do actual work?! How inhuman!!!
The
Submitted by Bob K on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 4:18pm.
fact that they did not go through the e-mails beforehand and highlight anything that might be "dirt" before releasing them to the Lame Stream Media proves they are Palin fans. How DARE they expect the media actually do its own work. ***Sarcasm Off*** LoL
Palin emails
Submitted by SouthernMystery on Tue, 06/14/2011 - 5:04pm.
I have read other articles about the Palin email release that mention the limited bandwidth of the community in Juneau Alaska. Had these documents been released electronically, I would imagine it would put severe strain on their limited resources. Why should the local residents suffer while salivating liberal journalists clog up the internet servers and phone lines while reporting on this non-story?