A story in the Louisiana Record, a reputable online news service trumpeted a headline way back in 2015, during Jeff Landry’s successful bid to oust incumbent Attorney General Buddy Caldwell that said:
A.G. candidate Landry pledges transparency
The first paragraph of that now infamous promise said, “An organization working to hold attorney general candidates accountable says Louisiana attorney general candidate Jeff Landry has made a pledge to be transparent in office.”
To read the entire text of that story, go HERE.
Fast forward to March of 2021 and we see a vastly different headline in the Louisiana Illuminator, another trustworthy online service, which said:
AG Jeff Landry gets dubious ‘Black Hole Award’
for ‘outright contempt’ of government transparency
Here’s the first sentence of that story: “The Society of Professional Journalists is giving its annual “Black Hole Award” to Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry for his attempt to block a public records request by filing a lawsuit against the reporter who made the request…”
Wait. He did what? Yep, he actually filed suit against a Baton Rouge Advocate reporter who had the audacity to make a public records request.
But don’t take my word for it; read it for yourself HERE.
Now that he’s governor, he’s thrown his bantam weight behind Senate Bill 482 by Sen. Heather Cloud (R-Turkey Creek) who obviously takes her marching orders from the State Capitol’s fourth floor.
And if you want to hear the most absurd, most juvenile justification for Landry’s desire to shut down access to public records, try this: He said you don’t go into a restaurant, order food and then watch to see how the cook prepares it, so why would we entrust elected officials not to do the right thing by insisting on examining records and correspondence to see how a particular decision was reached?
Again, you can read (and watch) it HERE.
Are you freaking kidding me? I cannot recall any elected official uttering that inane an “explanation” of anything. It’s not even worthy of a middle schooler, for which Landry might be mistaken, given his robust physique.
That video, by the way, is courtesy of WVUE in New Orleans (a Fox station, no less), which does a damn sight better job of covering state government than any of the Baton Rouge TV stations which seem to prefer cramming as many injury lawyer ads and weather updates into a 30-minute “news” cast as humanly possible.
And just in case you think I’m exaggerating, there is another WVUE story that informs us that Cloud and Landry also defend SB 482 by making some sort of comparison between media transparency and government accountability. They whine that reporters are not forced to reveal their sources for investigative stories, so why should elected officials be required to give up information? Isn’t it just amazing how they concocted such similar arguments? I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. Click HERE to see story and video.
Well, Guv and Sen. Cloud, the reasons are many-fold. First reporters are not elected officials who swear an oath to protect the interest of the citizens. They can – and are – fired if they violate a trust. Elected officials, on the other hand, are not so easy to fire and many take full advantage of their positions to make timely investments to enrich themselves. And before any troll out there can remind me, I’m acutely aware that that’s true of either party – Democrat and Republican. Reporters do indeed have a responsibility to tell the truth and when they do not adhere to that responsibility, there are consequences. Politicians have the same responsibility but when has a politician not lied when it was expedient to do so. You can’t sue a politician for lying (there’d be no politicians) but when a reporter lies, there is a legal remedy.
Reporters are not making daily decisions with taxpayer money – like approving the expenditure of public funds to make a purchase monetarily beneficial to the elected official approving the expenditure. If someone chooses to terminate a subscription or to cease watching a news station, there is no one to stop him. That same option is not available when it comes to paying taxes, so we should have some insight as to how our money is being used.
It was Thomas Jefferson who said if he had to choose a government with no free press or a free press with no government, he would not hesitate to choose the latter. Without a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or in Louisiana’s case, a Public Records Act (LA. R.S. 44.1 (et seq.), there will be absolutely no governmental accountability. None. Zilch. Nada. Zero, Zip.
Yet, this is precisely what Landry wants through his puppet Sen. Cloud. He also wants to make it downright illegal for an out-of-state individual to make public records requests.
He claims public records requests have become “weaponized.” Sounds a little like Don Snoreleone, aka the Nodfather, also aka Ebenezer Snooze.
And irony of irony, today I made the following public records request of Landry: “Pursuant to LA. R.S. 44.1 (et seq.), I hereby submit my formal request for the opportunity to examine, inspect, and otherwise review all correspondence between Gov. Jeff Landry or any and all of his designees and State Sen. Heather Cloud relative to public records and Senate Bill 482. According to state law, I have the option of reviewing records before committing to any purchase of documents.”
Anyone taking odds on the outcome of this request?
I’ll keep pounding away at this theme, so remember what I say about Landry and his minions: These people are not your friends.