An item to make one proud, and specifically that made me proud, especially since I’m an alumna of the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is this blog post, and moreover the column it cites, about the Raleigh News and Observer‘s role in fighting for open government in the state of my birth. I have to admit, however, that I found it via another blogger who found it first: my colleague Leslie Graves over at Open Records in Wisconsin. Oh, the wonders of the internet.

It is immensely heartening to read the stance taken by the News & Observer’s Executive Editor, John Drescher. This is a journalist doing what journalists are supposed to do. He’s writing here about the problems the N&O has had gaining access to public information under the administration of out-going Governor Mike Easley:

This isn’t just a snit between us and Easley’s people. It matters to you.

Look, you might not like us. We’re too liberal. Or we’re too conservative. We all went to Carolina. Or we loved State’s Philip Rivers and Chuck Amato.

You hate Mallard Fillmore. Or you love Mallard Fillmore. We’re pro-Israel — except to those who insist we’re pro-Palestinian.

Fine by me. You read the paper; you’re entitled to your opinion.

But remember this: We dig like nobody else. We do the dirty work that no one else can do. It’s expensive. It’s monotonous. It often leads to unpleasant confrontation. Not many journalists enjoy it.

But it makes government better. It makes North Carolina better. To dig, we need public information — information that belongs to you and me.

For people who care about open government, this is the worst administration in decades.

Jim Hunt and Jim Martin were governor for 24 years before Easley. Their staffs had plenty of fights with reporters.

But most of the time, their public information officers respected the law and the public’s right to know about their government.

Read the complete column here.

Thank you, John Drescher. I hope to see your face in the Journalism Hall of Fame in that little burg down the road from you someday. You belong there.

Peace.

Deborah Alicen