I was really excited to hear on NPR, as I drove to work this morning, that all systems were go for today's federal trial on Prop. 8 to be broadcast on YouTube.
The proceedings would, as they say, be televised. Exciting news. It would have been the first federal trial in at least nine Western states ever to see that kind of sunshine, according to the LA Times.
The idea of finally seeing a federal trial on TV, and the public having that access -- even after the fact -- was thrilling.
A year and a half after moving to California and finding out exactly how little information a government can get away with releasing, I was frothing at the idea of just about anything in a government building being televised.
Shoulda known. It was too good to be true. The U.S. Supreme Court pulled the plug this morning.
For now, I'll remain starved for public information.
As a reporter, the blockade here on what you can know about what your own government does is endlessly frustrating.
I couldn't believe it when I first found out that something as rote as a police incident report in California isn't public information. That means if someone breaks into the house next door to yours, you have no way of finding out anything about it. The cops will tell you they went to the address, but they won't tell you why.
Considering that, I guess the prospect of watching a telecast of something as historical as the fate of Prop. 8 was really too much to hope for.
That's just bizarre. You don't think of California as being so against the public getting information!
Posted by: m henry | January 12, 2010 at 08:43 PM