Article archive / April 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 8. Source pages: 2.
Last week was a bummer.
In January I’d submitted a request for public documents to LPA (the psychology association) asking about the LSBEP election. Things seemed a little weird and I wanted to find out what was happening. LPA conducts the election for the state psychology board, or should we say tries to conduct the election.
Also, I had it from reliable sources that one of the candidates, Joe Comaty, had questioned another candidate’s qualifications, and I wanted to see what that was about.
After much weeping and gnashing of teeth by LPA over my request for documents, partly because they didn’t want to have to pay an attorney to help figure this out, I gave in and agreed to substitute an interview with the president, John Fanning, as long as the Council would give him the authority to tell the truth. They agreed.
So last week John tells me that LPA has reneged on the deal, not in those words of course. And, after all my co-dependent waffling, they’d gone to an attorney after all. The attorney has the opinion that they do not fall under public records laws. This in spite of the fact that they help conduct the election for a public board.
I also glean that they are afraid that if they release emails they could get sued for something or other.
First, I feel like a schmuck for ever making the deal in the first place. This is what I deserve for compromising my principles. I’m never going to admit to my journalism consultant that I did this–I’ll take it to my grave.
Second, is LPA more afraid of a candidate suing them for confidentiality (what confidentiality?!) than the Times suing them because they refuse to release information about the public’s business? I obviously am a schmuck because they aren’t afraid of me at all.
But the week was not over yet.
I had also asked for documents from the state board on this same matter the week before by email. The director told me to send the request in snail mail, so I did. The next week I received a response from the director saying that they were working on it, and that it would be processed in the order that it was received. (How many public records requests do they get?)
She also said they are having to go to another state agency, because I didn’t narrow the dates. After this they would have their attorney review it all. Then, they’ll invoice me and then I’ll send a check and then when they’ve received my check, they’ll release the documents, she said.
Because I’m now jumping through the new hoops that the psychology board has put in place regarding openness, I decided to exercise my right to “examine documents” in person. I figured I could get the gist of the election matter, but I also wanted info on some other issues, like an Emeritus problem.
Well, of course my bad luck held. The director was off to some conference or another, and the very nice assistant was not about to give me anything and I don’t blame her.
But then, shortly after that, I got a call from the director, scolding me about something, but I wasn’t exactly sure what. I don’t think she appreciated me dropping by.
To top it all off, I contacted Joe Comaty to see if he would tell me anything, and he declined to comment until the records process was complete. Fair enough and he did respond very quickly.
But, he also took the opportunity to alert me to his view that I’m misleading readers when I sign my name with “PhD” over the publication title, The Psychology Times. He thinks this gives people the impression that my doctorate is in journalism.
Not only don’t I have a doctorate in journalism, I’ve never even taken a course. I’m not even sure if anyone gets this degree any more, since LSU journalism is under the School of Mass Communications and the blurb says it’s about “storytelling in a multimedia world.” What is that, a degree in Facebook and Twitter? Not a word about the First Amendment.
My parents were LSU journalism graduates and newspaper people. I know what they were about, and it was a lot more than storytelling. A lot more. I think perhaps that real journalists are a dying breed.
But I still remember.
And I remember what they stood for and why.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.