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Larry L. Rose Larry Rose, Corpus Christi Caller-Times editor, writes an occasional column. He can be reached at rosel@caller.com. Sunday, October 24, 1999 Unsigned notes and Best votes
A couple of unrelated items: What do organizations do with tips about wrongdoing; and how can the little guy win in the Best of the Best contest?
What value is a "nobody" to society? The nobody could be anonymous, could be someone who has been shunned by an organization, could be called Chicken Little. A panel of attorneys, city and county leaders recently addressed the question: What should governmental bodies do with anonymous notes? The notes may point out problems with government or public officials but could be about anybody, and could say anything. Most of these notes contain unfounded allegations and could be from crackpots; someone said just get rid of them. But there also could be information from whistleblowers that the agency should investigate. And what is the responsibility of a governmental body to show to the public an anonymous letter it receives with scandalous information about an official? If the letter is maintained in a file, is it considered to be part of the public's business, thus available to the public? If the governmental body releases the information in the letter, is there legal liability? Consensus of the panel was that it would depend on the circumstances under which the letter was written and received, and, more importantly, it would depend on the contents of the letter. The questions came to a panel during a Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas seminar on open records and meetings sponsored by the Caller-Times and the Scripps Howard Foundation. The luncheon speaker afterwards was Anthony P. Griffin, a lawyer who was dismissed as attorney for the NAACP after he defended the First Amendment rights of the head of the Ku Klux Klan. Griffin honed in on the anonymous notes discussion and addressed the importance of the content. Peopled look at unpleasant news from people they don't know as suspect and if they get that information from annoying people, the information likely will be dismissed. But Griffin challenged government officials and journalists to be open because sometimes this is the only avenue to results. And it often is the route, Griffin said, taken by minorities. You have to be able to look past the messenger, and if you can do that, he said, you may find value in the message and be able to use it to society's advantage. It's a timely point in many ways and for more than one organization. Now a note from a reader about the Best of the Best contest: "Sirs, This is just another way to sell more newspapers and is grossly unfair to small businesses or one-person offices. . . . Large offices win because of their numbers." Not surprisingly, only a few of the thousands of ballots we receive are completely filled in. We added a rule this year that at least 10 categories must be filled in for the ballot to be accepted. The winner in many categories won by a few votes. Readers wrote in so many different names or businesses in a few categories that fewer than a dozen votes separated the list top to bottom. Of course there were some categories that generated huge responses. But when the Best of the Best section comes out Dec. 12, you'll see small businesses among the winners and readers' choice selections. A few callers ask how the Caller-Times can possibly say that business X is the best. This contest is similar to the baseball all-star voting; it's a vote of the fans. Winners are determined by the newspaper's readers' who take the time to vote. That's it. This year in a twist, contest counting teams selected their own winner. The new category is Most Creative Best of the Best ballot. Here are some tongue-in-cheek responses from Kennis B. Wesson. Knowledge of recent history may help:
© 1999 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved. |
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