P&C gets long-sought SLED documents, then does a little dance

The Post and Courier has finally started to receive copies of public documents from the State Law Enforcement Division, and it's not being too shy about bragging.

The paper writes, in an unsigned editorial

SLED previously had attempted to pass off a simplified budget document to satisfy one of our requests for information. ... The recent delivery of voluminous budget material indicates that SLED's leadership is finally prepared to deal more rationally with requests related to agency accountability.

I'd really like to be happy that The Post and Courier won its skirmish with the agency, but writing like that makes it hard to.

But, what really got my proverbial goat was this opening statement by the paper:

The State Law Enforcement Division has finally made available two full boxes of budget records sought by The Post and Courier in a series of Freedom of Information requests. Providing public access to the budget and spending information was the only reasonable response.

There's two problems here. First, preparing two boxes of information is not the same as "making available." Second, and more importantly, public access has not been granted, access has been granted to The Post and Courier.

Sunshine is good for everything.

Here's the whole editorial.

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