I appreciated the Star-Advertiser’s reporting on newly disclosed FBI files on the late Senator Dan Inouye, not only for quickly identifying interesting items from the mass of Inouye-related documents, but also for introducing me the FBI’s online electronic reading room dubbed “The Vault.”
From the FBI description:
The Vault is our new electronic reading room, containing 6,700 documents and other media that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office.
Included here are many new FBI files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; files from our previous electronic reading room, and new, previously unreleased files.
Funny thing, though.
The early “breaking news” version of the story, posted early Monday afternoon, included a direct link to the FBI documents.
The files were placed on the FBI website at http://vault.fbi.gov/daniel-inouye/
But when the full story appeared in today’s Star-Advertiser’s online edition, the link was missing.
Maybe it was just an oversight. But it’s one of those things that drives me crazy. If you’re selectively pulling certain things out of a much larger set of information, and the information is readily available to readers, shouldn’t you include a link back to the original source? I think it’s good journalism, but you can just view it as a courtesy to readers.
Yes, readers can search for the FBI’s vault and find the link. But it’s an extra step that makes it less likely others will follow.
Credit to S-A reporter Derrick DePledge, who quickly made the link available via a post on the “Political Radar” blog.
If you find other nuggets of interesting information among the documents posted by the FBI, let us know.
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Civil Beats, Chad Blair, broke the story first.
If Star-Advertiser staffers read more than the first few pages of the files, it wasn’t apparent from the story. It’s simply inaccurate to say the files show “mostly threats” against the senator. To me, the records revealed more about Washington, D.C., than they did about the senator.
Reading the files really destroys one’s faith in the FBI.
No. 10 is pretty interesting. Sen. Inouye asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether the Republic of China (Taiwan) was spying on the activities of EWC students.
As you may recall, an EWC student from Taiwan went home and was sentenced to seven years in jail for anti-war protests he participated in during his years at the EWC.
Just FYI, every agency now posts online the responses it makes to FOIA requests. They make for some interesting reading.