Public information officers who work in North Carolina state and local government get a lot of grief, sometimes from JLF and sometimes deservedly so (the latter two instances being, of course, entirely identical). But they do have a difficult, often thankless job. They have to respond to all sorts of requests for information. And they have to defend what is often indefensible.
Take Debbie Crane, who does public-information work for the state Department of Health and Human Services. She?s having to explain HHS?s role in a group-home scandal that The Charlotte Observer has uncovered in a series that began Sunday (it?s linked to our Carolina Journal Online site). There isn?t really any helpful explanation for HHS in the matter, which is appalling, so Crane has resorted to this old chestnut:
“What happened … is past tense,” said Debbie Crane, an agency spokeswoman. “Our goal is to ensure that the people most in need of mental health services receive those services. Our eye is on that prize, not looking backward to affix blame.”
Good try, but it is absolutely essential that policymakers, journalists, and the public look backward to affix blame. That?s how you reduce the chances of a similar scandal occuring in the future.
