EDITORIAL: Shedding light amid Trump's public records blackout

The second go-round of a Donald Trump presidential administration has been punctuated by dramatic changes.

Lost amid all the scrutiny of mass firings by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and other sweeping changes was a particularly troubling decision, as reported by the Poynter Institute in February, to fire federal staff responsible for responding to Freedom of Information Law requests.

CNN first reported that its attempt to obtain records related to security clearances for Trump’s top aide Elon Musk through a FOIL request filed with the Office of Personal Management was met with an email that read: “Good luck with that.”

It highlights Trump’s attitude toward the traditional media, a dark reminder of how he has so often cast reporters as “enemies of the people” in the past.

As Poynter noted, the federal government — and we would add most levels of government — have traditionally struggled to respond to legal requests for public information in a timely fashion.

Firing the staff responsible for fulfilling requests certainly won’t make things better at the federal level.

Washington Post FOIA director Nate Jones summed the situation up best: “Anytime that whole FOIA offices are getting fired, it portends terrible things.”

Terry Mutchler, an attorney and former journalist who serves as vice president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s board, took it a step further, saying: “I think that reporters, as is the American citizen, are in for a boatload of trouble in the next four years in this regard.”

We wholeheartedly agree.

We also must consider an even darker possibility — that the Trump administration’s attitude about public records requests will filter down to state and local governments.

Access to records at all levels has been a key element of investigative journalism for decades. Reporters have used such information to enlighten readers and highlight corruption and problems in government to drive voters and citizens to demand change.

We struggle to understand how any American — Right-leaning, Left-leaning or middle-of-the-road — can support any administration’s efforts to limit access to what should be public information.

While not having FOIA officers in place certainly spells trouble, it’s important to stress that it does not relieve the federal government of its responsibility to process public records requests under timeframes prescribed by law.

Reporters, editors and readers must understand that public agencies are still required, by law, to respond to formal requests for information in a timely fashion. Failure to do so can lead to court action, an often time-consuming and potentially costly step in the process that news outlets may well need to consider more often in light of current circumstances.

The best defense to all of this remains one of the simplest: reminding audiences of their right — their American right — to know.

Just as CNN did in its reporting on the Office of Personnel Management’s “Good Luck with that” email response to its FOIA request, all media members and news outlets must consistently inform the public whenever their government withholds what should be public information. That step in the process should also underscore how such documents often contain information about the cost of government, a cost borne by taxpayers themselves.

Jones, who writes a column where he regularly documents the ups and downs of public records requests made by The Washington Post, made a great recommendation when he encouraged news outlets to “be transparent with the readership about the federal government’s failings in following the law or withholding information.”

We would only add that a similar standard must also be applied to local and state reporting.

“Let the public know about their losses: ‘We requested this information under FOIA. Public, don’t you think that you have the right to it?’ ” Jones told Poynter.

At a time when the current administration is thumbing its nose at the media and the public’s right to know, it’s as important as ever for journalists, newspapers and news outlets to help the American public understand the difference between rhetoric and responsibility.

In other words, our job is to tell them as often as necessary that there can be no America “of the people, by the people and for the people” when there is no or limited access to information about how tax money is being allocated or how public resources are being used.