Originally posted by GeneV I understand that it was the State of Alaska that released these emails. Honestly, looking at the daisy was a better analogy than intercepting the U.S. mail when it comes to emails sent on government business. Just about every governmental entity in the country is covered by some kind of public records law. There is no privacy on government computers any more than government files. BTW, what amazed me most from the Wikileaks episode was how little awareness participants seem to have that they are creating a "written" record which could go public.
Before email, we used letters and the U.S. mail if we sent something that would leave a record. However, the office of my employer always made me keep a correspondence file of everything I wrote. That file was their property to keep or release as they saw fit. My understanding of what has happened here is that Palin's former employer, the State of Alaska, is releasing records that are their property.
Gene, without question everything you say is correct and I personally was well aware of this. Clearly they had every legal right to publish the emails.
My point would be WHY would they do this - other than for some possible, negative political reasons.
This is not a normal event!
As I said previously, how many of us could withstand the publishing of our whole career of communications and then giving of them to the media for dirt collection!
Surely, because you CAN do it doesn't mean that you MUST do it?