While a Chicago Tribune columnist affirms the value of transparency, he can’t help questioning the Wisconsin’s Republican Party’s Freedom of Information Act request for the e-mails of a university professor two days after the professor posted a “study guide” to conservative think tanks on his personal blog.
In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, Clarence Page writes that the conservatives are fishing for “e-mail evidence that would catch professors in the act of politicking over the collective bargaining rights debate in Wisconsin. That would be illegal, although in this case it also seems far-fetched. When speech and academic freedoms are at stake, courts usually have given wide latitude to professors and others who advocate for certain issues without actively campaigning for specific candidates or ballot issues.” -db
From a commentary in the Chicago Tribune, April 6, 2011, by Clarence Page.