The St. Petersburg Times: The prince of darkness

BY TIM NICKENS

“GIVE AN INCH…”

That was the sarcastic tweet last weekend by Brian Burgess, the communications director for Gov. Rick Scott. He complained about a Times/Herald Tallahassee bureau article describing how Scott’s selective release of information about large public pensions advances his political agenda.

Burgess’ point: The poor governor gets criticized for not being transparent, creates a website to provide more public information, and still gets criticized by whiny reporters.

My assessment of this snarky tweet: The Scott administration views Florida’s Sunshine Laws as a nuisance and the release of public records as a personal favor. It treats public records as private corporate documents and grudgingly distributes what it wants, when it wants — and to whom it wants.

Read: http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/the-prince-of-darkness/1159632