I won’t pretend to fully comprehend the back-and-forth between the Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown, which are now at odds with each other in a lawsuit concerning the city’s continuing refusal to release a public record related to the preparation of a budget proposal presented by Brown to the Jacksonville City Council on May 1. If you want to understand more about the case, be sure to read this article by the Times-Union’s Drew Dixon.
No, what is interesting to me is this nugget: The complaint specifically details how Brown’s spokesman, David DeCamp, has been unresponsive to journalist’s requests and other instances.
You don’t mean, David DeCamp, the former reporter at the Tampa Bay Times? Because I just can’t believe that DeCamp would be unresponsive to any journalist’s request for public records. After all, he worked at the Times, the newspaper owned by the venerable Poynter Institute, the cathedral of the First Amendment.
No, I just can’t — I won’t — believe my friend, David DeCamp, would be anything less than fully cooperative with a request for public information.
Unless, that’s what happens to reporters-turned-flacks. Suddenly, they’re on the other end of some flat-footed reporter’s public information request and those Sunshine Laws begin to make you feel a little warm.
Watch out David, if you’re not careful, soon enough you’ll transition from PR flack to full-fledged political operative. Then you’ll really hate public information requests!
Just to be fair, I should mention that DeCamp is mentioned just one time in the nine-page lawsuit.
