Georgia officials nominated for secrecy award? What can you say
The mayor of Atlanta and a judge from the North Georgia hills are in the running for a national (dis)honor of being the most ambitious government officials working to throw a wet tarp over the public's right to know.
The Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) have nominated Mayor Kasim Reed and Judge Brenda Weaver for the 2017 Golden Padlock award, which recognizes the "dedication, creativity and chutzpah" to keep the public in the dark.
Reed got the nod for his Performance Art-like stunt of having nearly 1.5 million of pages of random records photocopied and then dumped on reporters to bury their investigations in dead trees. But Reed, a competitive fellow, was seemingly outdone by the rural judge who was creative enough to jail a newspaper publisher for snooping around in her public financial records.
And yet for all that, the journalism group failed to give a shoutout to another deserving Georgia institution. That's a doggone shame.
About the Author
Bill Torpy continues to contribute columns to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since retiring in 2025. The Chicago native started covering metro Atlanta for the AJC in 1990.
