Fixing FOIA

By Leigh Paynter

The Associated Press requests more documents than any other news agency in the United States. Recently, the AP has hit a hurdle in obtaining CIA documents on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy - and these documents were made available in their entirety two decades ago.

Since his first day in office, President Barack Obama promised to fix the hurdles in current Freedom of Information Act, telling government agencies to be prepared to open more filing cabinets.

The Associated Press reports on itself on Yahoo!News that it couldn't be more delighted. It files hundreds of requests for federal and state documents each year. Here are some of the ways The AP has used government documents to inform the public:

© 2003 The Associated Press (Photo:Diane Bondareff)

The AP reported on Hillary Clinton’s affairs and actions with businesses who later contributed to her husband’s charity while she was senator from documents it made public and later became key issues in Clinton’s secretary of state confirmation hearing.













© 2007 The Associated Press (Photo:Chris Miller)

The AP was the first to reveal that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin spent state money on trips with her children that were not for official business. Palin had to reimburse Alaska $10,000.










© 2007 The Associated Press (Photo: John Bazemore)

And the AP uncovered documents that showed the Federal Food and Drug Administration had concerns over the Georgia peanut processing plant that started the salmonella outbreak for nearly four years.

But sometimes the AP is less successful in obtaining documents and records.












© 1973 The Associated Press, © 1962 Portrait The Associated Press

The AP recently requested copies from the CIA’s 1960’s documents about then-congressman, Gerald Ford’s investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.











© 1975 The Associated Press (Photo: Charles Tasnadi)

The CIA is refusing to disclose the full memo written by FBI senior official Cartha DeLoach, citing national security concerns.

But the uncensored 45 year-old memo was released to the public nearly two decades ago. In the uncensored version, Ford says he heard a CIA report that Lee Harvey Oswald was paid by the Cuban consulate in Mexico City to assassinate JFK. This has since been debunked by JFK scholars.

The Labor Department has since sent The AP a letter stating that it didn’t want to spend money making copies of records that might no longer be needed. The Labor Department shipped the letter by Federal Express for $10.50. A photocopy is 42 cents.

• Do the censoring of these documents by the CIA fall into a fair exemption to FOIA?
• Is the Labor Department's response to the AP justifiable?