Sometimes when I read a story in the local paper or on-line, I wonder just how dense the people are who wrote the story and often ask myself, “Why is this a story?”

I’m sure you’ve all felt that way a time or two, huh?

I was glancing through the headlines on the web today and saw the story where the Associated Press had conducted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Wow, FOIA.  Scary stuff!

This request was in regards to the poaching charges against Randy Vogel, which were filed one day after he became the State Director for Congressman Denny Rehberg.  

Sadly, this was big time investigative reporting – for Montana.

The AP was looking for “political pressure” in the case.  The whole news bureau in Helena should take Friday off because their reporting is completed for the week!

FOIA requests for e-mails are not what they used to be.  In fact they are mostly a joke.

What the AP did find was this:

Internal e-mails show top officials at the governor’s office and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks knew that a poaching investigation involved a prominent Republican who later went to work for Rep. Denny Rehberg.

So the headline reads, “E-mails show no pressure in poaching case”

Amazing!

I wonder if the “top officials” at the governor’s office are notified every time someone is investigated for poaching?  Maybe an FOIA request looking for how many times the Governor’s office was notified about other poaching cases would shed some light in the dark corners.  This is Sunshine Week!

Seriously, you really would need to be an idiot to send something potentially damaging through official e-mail.  Of course, there are idiots out there.  I’ve known a few of them and have been called one a time or two.  I’ve received a few e-mails from idiots, too.

Here in Montana we have some pretty inexperienced journalists and reporters, some on their first job, so they should take note:  In today’s modern world, a person can sit at the desk of their government job and fire off personal e-mail after e-mail from their cell phone about most anything – even a silly poaching case!

And, as long as the recipient is getting the e-mails on their personal account, nobody will know – unless there’s some serious legal action taken, which rarely happens.

Heck, they might even make a call from their personal phone to say something like, “Psst, we can really nail Rehberg on this one – let Dennis know.”

I don’t think the AP asked for official cell phone records.

In a perfect world, I’d love to see personal e-mails from a couple of “boards” in my community since some of them undoubtedly deal with “official” business, but I probably never will – unless someone screws up.

Like I said in my prior commentary about this issue, “This Smells.”  It still does.