Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's controvery about e-mails is really about the public's right to know
November 20, 2008: After an exhaustive three days huddled together in a fifth-floor newspaper conference room, 12 reporters and editors from the state's three largest news organizations breathed a collective sigh of relief and wondered aloud about what they had found.
Together, in a rare if not unprecedented collaboration, we had combed through 22 boxes of e-mails from the administration of Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt. Page by painful page, we read nearly every word of more than 60,000 of them from a three-month period in 2007 as the issue of e-mails and public records rose to statewide attention. Read the full column here.
E-mail record contradicts Blunt claims
November 15, 2008: For more than a year, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt’s administration has defended itself against accusations that it has ignored laws that guarantee an open government.
The administration contended that a fired staff lawyer never offered advice about the governor's policy requiring public records, including e-mails, to be retained.
But he did.
Blunt’s staffers said the administration did not regularly conduct state business out of public view on campaign e-mail accounts.
But they did.Read the full article here.
Blunt's office had no e-mail sheriff
November 13, 2008: When it came to handling office e-mails in Gov. Matt Blunt's administration, it was up to individual employees to decide what to save and what to purge.
Nobody made sure that state rules for preserving public records, including e-mails, were followed, according to sworn testimony by three former top members of Blunt's administration. Read the full article here.
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