http://spj.org/blackhole.asp

Awards
The Black Hole Award

Previous ‘winners’

2012
— The Georgia Legislature’s 2008 law and 2011 amendments to that law providing tax credits for private schools
— Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
— Wisconsin State Legislature
Read about 2012's ‘winners’

2011
— Utah the darkest pit in the United States
— Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services: Hiding Child Deaths
— University of Maryland: Pricing People out of their Government
— Fairfax County Police Department: Hiding the Killers of Unarmed Citizens
— Central Intelligence Agency and A.G. Eric Holder: Flagrant Destruction of Embarrassing Records
— Broward County, Fla., School Board: Inaccurate Records
Read about 2011's ‘winners’

The Society of Professional Journalists launched the Black Hole Award to highlight the most heinous violations of the public's right to know.

By exposing such abuses, SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee seeks to educate the public about their rights and call attention to those who would interfere with openness and transparency.

Nomination criteria

Black Hole Award nominations should meet the following criteria:

1. Violation, in spirit or letter, of any federal or state open-government law. This means either a clear violation of the statute governing access to public records or public meetings, or using an ambiguity or loophole in the law to avoid having to comply with the law. For example: conducting multiple meetings with small groups that do not constitute a quorum, email discussions outside the public view, or charging unreasonable amounts to copy documents.

2. Egregiousness. In order to maintain the effectiveness of the Black Hole Award, it should not be given for just any openness violation. Recipients should know they are trampling on the public’s right, placing personal or political interests ahead of the public good or endangering public welfare. Examples might include an agency or official who attempted to keep information secret to avoid embarrassment or hide misdeeds.

3. Impact. The case should be one that affects the public rather than an individual. The award should not be used to settle vendettas against recalcitrant bureaucrats. Withholding information should hurt the general public rather than an individual.

SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee welcomes nominations from local SPJ chapters, SPJ members, other journalists and private citizens. [This sentence here was recently deleted, stating the winning recipient(s) would be announced during Sunshine Week, which ended March 16, 2013.]

Nominations should include, where possible, supporting documentation. Documentation can include any of the following:

— News coverage of the violation.
— Public records chronicling the dispute.
— Legal papers if there was a lawsuit or other legal action involved in the matter.
— Any expert opinion from an attorney, official or open-government expert that the violation occurred.
— Contact information for the parties involved to allow the committee to obtain more information if needed, including from the government official.

How to submit your nomination

Deadline for nominations is Monday, Feb. 18.

Please email nominations to FOI Committee member Mike Farrell, or mail to:

Mike Farrell, Ph.D.
Director, Scripps Howard First Amendment Center
School of Journalism and Telecommunications
144 Grehan Building
Lexington, KY 40506-0042

...3. Impact. The case should be one that affects the public rather than an individual. The award should not be used to settle vendettas against recalcitrant bureaucrats. Withholding information should hurt the general public rather than an individual.

SPJ’s Freedom of Information Committee welcomes nominations from local SPJ chapters, SPJ members, other journalists and private citizens. The recipient(s) will be announced during Sunshine Week, March 10-16, 2013....

The subject newspaper was The Naples Daily News - anyone interested in reviewing some of their "journalism" from 2007-2012 -- and perhaps giving them some much deserved recognition? The GOP public officials lost their jobs over this Sunshine violation of public records, but - no public record exists anywhere in court files, despite three court cases, and in newspapers, about this matter. I was hoping SPJ would finally give this newspaper the dubious honors it deserves, but, no such luck.

A "worst journalism" award is much needed, so that citizens can submit this sort of information to others.

Email me at DU if interested... thanks.

In addition to fabricated newspaper articles (meaning: corrupt journalism, which I believe was bought and paid for by corrupt GOP politicians, who do not want the "news" reported), there is email evidence, three court cases, and, even video! Here is the Naples Daily News' editorial editor Jeff Lytle hosting a local program, acting as a handler to this now former public school district superintendent from the military -- who claims to have four college degrees, but can't produce a single official college transcript or sworn job application!

Lytle is interrupting in this one-minute video, in order to continue the fabricated narrative published in the newspaper about this new superintendent (now ousted because of a new majority on the school board, and a lawyer they hired who is not employed regularly at the Collier school district).

The fabricated narrative is that this superintendent had some "previous" job, or "previous" application on file at the school district, and so, it's all just a matter of needing to update that to match the current job title of superintendent. But, n fact: there is nothing on file for this superintendent. Just an empty personnel file folder. Is he a CIA assassin? A child molester? Who knows? No paperwork required to get hired in this district! And, to have your hands on a billion dollar annual school budget.

But it seems to me, in my opinion: perhaps this stupidintendent knows he is a fraud....

I really think this goes on in the USA, too. Fake and corrupt journalism, bought and paid for by the GOP.

http://www.forbes.com/global/2008/0721/018.html

http://blogs.spjnetwork.org/ijc/2008/08/11/fake-and-corrupt-journalism-in-china/