Selective Sunshine

Today's Rochester Democrat & Chronicle included a front-page story and an editorial dealing with open government issues.

Frankly, I have little sympathy for the D&C's sunshine agenda. Like almost all of its efforts, this one is partisan and is only aimed at targets that the Editorial Board thinks appropriate. As I noted in this recent post, the D&C only cares about openness when it will allow for a story critical of a GOP run entity.

Today, for example, the story and editorial deal with the difficulty of obtaining payroll information from local governments. For some reason, school districts were left out. If schools had been included, none of the 20 top earners listed in today's paper would have made the list. But school districts are one of the groups that are favored by the D&C, particularly since they fought Maggie Brooks and the FAIR plan.

As I noted in the post I referenced, the D&C's failure to criticise the City Council for its non-transparent decision to hold a special election, is proof that this paper's sun need only shine on its targets, not its friends.