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I’m a big fan of Barbara Petersen, President of the First Amendment Foundation of Florida.
She’s such an energetic champion of open government. And she’s a champion for everyone.
Some full disclosure is in order.
I’m also a member of the board of the nonprofit First Amendment Foundation, which has a singular mission of protecting your right to know what government is doing with the taxpayers’ money.
So when it comes to Barbara Petersen and the First Amendment Foundation, I’m clearly biased.
That stated, I think nearly everyone who comes into contact with Petersen leaves with the same opinion: She’s one of those people you can’t help but admire.
Last week, Petersen led a “Sunshine Seminar” at Northwest Florida State College, focused on educating citizens, government officials and journalists about Florida’s open meetings and public records laws.
In advance of the session, some online commenters found it ironic that it was held at the college, which has been at the center of the scandal surrounding state Rep. Ray Sansom, former college President James “Bob” Richburg, and developer Jay Odom. To that, I can only report that college Leadership Institute Director Julie Cotton was a great help in organizing the seminar.
Anyway, about 60 people attended. They included government officials, regular citizens and journalists.
Petersen spent the session walking the audience through the high points of Florida’s Sunshine laws. She answered a lot of questions.
Which government agencies and officials fall under the Sunshine laws? Which meetings must be open to the public? How and when should government meetings be advertised? Which records are citizens entitled to inspect? When are records exempt from inspection? Do citizens have a right to speak at meetings of government bodies? Do citizens have the right to criticize government officials at such meetings?
Petersen answered every question, sometimes with a definitive “yes” or “no” but often with some version of “that depends.”
That’s one thing I like about Petersen. She’s a strong advocate for the public’s right to know and an expert on the Sunshine laws, but she’s not a know-it-all.
Petersen is also unerringly polite. A citizen’s right to know and be heard, she noted at one point during the seminar, doesn’t mean it’s OK to be rude or otherwise uncivil.
One other thing I greatly admire about Petersen is that she’s an advocate for all citizens, regardless of personal politics.
You can be liberal or conservative, or a Republican or a Democrat, or something in between. Petersen and the First Amendment Foundation advocate on behalf of your right to know, no matter what.
The media, and the public, can learn a lot from that approach.
Earlier last week, retired ABC News journalist Ted Koppel decried the partisan journalism now practiced on cable news networks.
FOX News slants news and commentary to the right. MSNBC — and sometimes CNN — slant news and commentary to the left. Often, it’s hard to tell where reporting ends and commentary begins. Viewers increasingly select their news based on which medium supports their pre-conceived point of view, Koppel said at the Poynter Institute Center for Media Studies.
“I think we have gone totally nuts on the issue of entitlement,” said Koppel, who spent four decades as the anchor and managing editor of ABC’s “Nightline.”
“We want news that resonates our own pre-held opinions. That is the worst possible recipe for a country that prides itself in democracy.”
The proliferation of clearly partisan journalism is most likely the reason why a Pew Research Center survey released last week found that the general public has less faith in the credibility of news coverage than ever.
Petersen and the First Amendment Foundation make a good antidote to the partisan sniping that some media take part in. Petersen’s partisanship is simply on behalf of the public’s right to know, and that includes all of us.
As I stated earlier, I’m biased when it comes to Barbara Petersen, the First Amendment Foundation, and the public’s right to know.
If you’re also biased in favor of open government, here’s hoping you’ll go to floridafaf.org and find out how you can support the First Amendment Foundation.
Pat Rice is director of content for Florida Freedom Newspapers. He can be reached at
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. Read his blog at nwfdailynews.com. |
