Ethics and Legalities

(Posted on 11/06/11)

Today, more than 24,000 emails were released to the always-hungry media. Those emails included messages sent and received from then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. As soon as it was announced that these emails would soon be made public knowledge, supporters, and even those who say they would never vote for her cried "foul!". Americans have a strong sense of privacy, even for its politicians when it's not unwarranted. Suddenly, released hundreds of pounds of paper of a former governor's communication seems a bit much. And then it got worse.

The Washington Post was slated to have first access to the information and as a result, and for reasons few can understand, it decided to release this statement:

UPDATE: We have had a strong response to our crowdsourcing call-out on the Palin e-mails. We've reconsidered our approach and now would like to invite comments and annotations from any interested readers.

Here’s how to participate:Over 24,000 e-mail messages to and from Sarah Palin during her tenure as Alaska's governor will be released on Friday. We’ll be posting them here, and are inviting you to comment on the most interesting or most noteworthy sections. Please include page numbers and, where possible, a direct excerpt. We'll share your comments with our reporters and may use facts or related material you suggest to annotate the documents displayed on The Post site. We may contact you for further details, by way of your registered e-mail with the Post, unless you specify otherwise in the comments. (The Washington Post)

The bottom fell out. The Washington Post quickly became the proverbial "media bad guy". Soon, Twitter, Facebook and message boards came alive with comments such as these:

Tina5 wrote:

It is pure sexism the way Palin is being attacked. I remember how Hillary was attacked, too. The idea of calling on readers to dig through her emails is outrageous. Why don't you do your own job? And why don't you dig through Obama's past in the same way? I guess you're afraid of powerful women.

Kitchendragon50 wrote:

Rake your own muck. Disgusting that you call on readers to join in your festivities.

And...

Deb wrote:

This is absolutely, positively horrible. I cannot believe that this organization would stoop this low; not to mention other news sources are doing the same. Can you say coordinated? This is nothing more than asking the reader to perform opposition research for President Obama. Shame on you!

The questions began surfacing: Is this legal? Are there any avenues for Palin to consider? Actually, the answer is simple. There's nothing illegal about what the Post is doing. All correspondence by elected officials stands to be placed in the public's eyes. Even if they are being unethical. As of Friday night, at least two more publications, including the UK's Guardian and The New York Times, have posted similar requests on their websites.