State cools threat to blogger over food stamp post

[Recursion]

Source: Boston Globe

Governor Deval Patrick’s administration said yesterday it never meant to “raise the specter of prosecution’’ when it told the cofounder of a local website that he could face jail time for publishing information that the state mistakenly provided about where people spend food stamps.

As First Amendment lawyers and journalists rushed to the defense of the website MuckRock (muckrock.com), a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transitional Assistance characterized the controversy that erupted this week as a misunderstanding.

The spokeswoman, Jennifer Kritz, said in a brief statement that her department e-mailed the website’s cofounder, Michael Morisy, on Monday “out of concern that the federal government might hold Mr. Morisy liable for posting the data online’’ after her department mistakenly released it in response to the site’s open-records request.

Although the e-mail said the federal government prohibited the release of the information and that failure to remove the posting from the website could result in fines or imprisonment, Kritz said the state was merely relaying the message.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/11/12/state_cools_threat_to_blogger_over_food_stamp_post/

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I'm torn about this. On the one hand it reminds me too much of 1980s "cadillac-driving welfare mom" hysteria. On the other hand, I don't like being against transparency.

[aquart]

1. Food stamps allow people the dignity of choice.

And higher end groceries are beginning to accept them. A careful, coupon-laden, sensible shopper can eat perfectly well on foodstamps but, while impulse buying doesn't work well, building in an occasional luxury food splurge is a good idea, not a bad one.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Yours is a humane and compassionate stance

that will, of course, be lost on the teabag-types. But who gives a shit what they think?

[Recursion]

4. I grew up on food stamps and WIC

So, yeah, I know exactly what you mean.

[cutlassmama]

6. Sometimes it's not a question of splurging, but access.

A lot of people on food stamps don't have transportation and have to buy food wherever it is sold closest to them.

[aquart]

7. But that's just as true for people paying cash.

What I've noticed in my neighborhood is that stores that were too hoity toity for food stamps are retooling their machines to take the EBT card. There are simply too many people on stamps to ignore that market.

[shraby]

2. Those are facts the government has collected and the

government is us, the public. What they put together is public information to be scrutinized, gleaned from for articles, etc. That is not their own personal information..public money paid for it, it belongs to the public.

[jeff47]

5. Depends on what, exactly, is in the information

If it's personal information, like SSNs, then no it should not be released.

If it's individual purchase histories, then no it should not be released.

If it's the compilation of data from a whole lot of people, then it should be released.