The New York Times also settled a suit, filed in March, and got the names of employees in an allegedly mismanaged city-run shelter for battered women. If you don't protect your rights day to day, you're going to lose them. Yet, three months after the court decision, Lewis is still waiting for about half of the 1994 reports. Nor has the DOI complied with his requests for 1995 and 1996 reports. Moreover, news organizations cannot or will not litigate whenever there is an incident.
Suits cost money.
Often we tell our reporters to use their skills in order to get the information. Given such limitations, news organizations pick their battles. At rapper Biggie Smalls's tumultuous funeral on March 18, Julia Campbell, a New York Times freelancer, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. A police report charged she had incited the crowd and pushed a police officer. A tear-gas canister went off and she asked what was going on.