There is no more powerful antidote to social media-driven conspiracy campaigns, deep-fakes and other misinformation than journalism supported by public documents, The Washington Post FOIA director Nate Jones said.
Government records not only bolster the work but also build public trust, uniquely allowing the audience to follow the reporting process leading to the final product, Jones told the National Press Foundation’s Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship class.
“If you get a public record in reporting, get an image of that, splash it out there; show the readers under the hood what you’re looking at,” Jones said.
When access is denied, Jones recommended the same kind of transparency.
“If you get a wholly redacted document that has three words, that does not mean it’s a failure,” he said. “Think creatively … get your readers agitated. Say, ‘Can you believe the government justifies the secrecy of this?'”
Key to most every document request, Jones said, is the language used to compose it.
Jones urged reporters to be strategic, engage in preliminary reporting to determine exactly what is needed. Each request should be narrowly tailored to identify the necessary information, he said.
Even when requests are denied, Jones recommended appealing those decisions, as additional information is yielded in about one-third of cases. In some cases, litigation may be necessary. And while potential legal costs could be daunting, some agencies will often pay attorneys’ fees when the requester prevails.
“Databases are a great target,” he said, noting that such requests have been supported in the courts, which have established databases as public records.
Not such great targets are email requests, as they are subject to an exemption, citing the target agency’s deliberative process.
“I don’t like emails for a couple of reasons: The biggest one is because the federal agencies and the courts have more and more and more come down on the side that most email content does not have to be released … government employees can communicate, but agencies and courts have stretched it to include almost everything written in an email. It sucks, but it’s tough with federal emails.”
As in all of journalism, reporting is what opens the door to records requests.
“Do your reporting on the FOIA like you do your (traditional) reporting,” Jones said. “Find where to file, find the law, make your request as clearly as possible,” Jones said. “Don’t be so afraid of it. Make the case. A lot of reporters are too afraid of these agencies. FOIA is a battle and you got to fight and you got to be willing to use litigation.”
Access the full transcript here.
