In a move meant to give a more consistent message to the public, the state Department of Transportation is restricting the news media’s access to its employees.The department has also removed all individual e-mail addresses from its Web site.
Under the new policy, the DOT’s communications staff and Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl will respond to reporters’ questions and gather information from the employees when they don’t know the answer themselves.
Access might be opened occasionally, but that probably would be rare, officials say.
“That is our communication office’s function,
Fresh Political Pickins From The Peach State
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That’s one way to build support for commuter rail.
Yeah……Remember that open government thing that Sonny touted so much…??? Well, lets just call this one more chink in that armor.
Seriously though, this kinda stuff also pisses off the public, not just the political hacks and newsies. The public likes the idea of being able to ask anyone who works in gov’t a question, even though it will not likely effect any of them.
And I agree with erick that this will only spawn new leaks.
Stephanie,
How is Sonny to blame for this?
What I want to know is what 5,700 people are doing working for the GDOT?
Buzz,
Everything in state gov’t is Sonny’s fault. He is their leader, and has chosen those who lead the departments. And you know Buzz, if it was just this one thing then no one would care, but there has been a systematic decrease in openness in Perdue’s administration. No, it is all not coming from the governor, but he sure has his own share, but as the CEO of Georgia he is in charge. If he wanted this to stop, he could.
Heck, everyone on this site has been effected by the changes to the campaign disclosure website. It sucks ass now, and you cannot deny it. Perdue installed his own people, who turned down the SOS system that worked perfectly fine, and now we have less access to public campaign disclosures.
I’m suprised this wasn’t the case already. Employers want to control the message coming from their employees to avoid conflicting and bad information. Hell my employer’s policy is so asinine that I can’t even dial 911 without first going through legal and corporate communications.
That’s code for, “Let’s make sure our stories match.”
Amber: exactly……
Any correlation between the eery silence of this blog today and this release?
What did y’all expect from a state administration and legislature that has done everything they could to repeal or weaken “sunshine laws.” Look around at all of the contracts or intiatives the last few years where state, and some local, governments have discussed the state’s business or awarded no-bid contracts behind closed doors and then refused to honor open records act requests or at least limit the amount of information coming out by ‘re-interpreting’ the statutes. And yes, I do agree with many of the comments posted here suggesting coverup or getting on the ’same sheet of music.’
Might this have anything to do with a nationwide move to allow the states to privatize/set up toll booths on pre-existing interstate highways taxpayers have already paid for? (just asking) (google “privatize interstates”) If so they can have this version of “States Rights”
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