CNN learned how to be journalists.
Via Idaho Statesman:
Cable News Network has sued Blaine County seeking information from a 1999 police investigation involving the family of Bowe Bergdahl, the Wood River Valley soldier who spent five years in captivity of the Taliban.
CNN says the report from the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office is subject to disclosure under Idaho public records laws. Sheriff Gene Ramsey has twice denied the network’s request.
“I have declined to release the report because I feel it should be exempt from disclosure, because it would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,” Ramsey told the Idaho Mountain Express. The sheriff said the report comes from “an investigation in 1999 in which no charges were filed.”
In correspondence with CNN, Ramsey based his refusal on Idaho Code 9-335, a statute that exempts disclosure of documents that would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.”
Bergdahl, 28, a U.S. Army sergeant from Hailey, has received international news media attention since his capture in Afghanistan in June 2009. Bergdahl was released by Taliban forces May 31 in exchange for five Taliban prisoners held by the United States.