Digging in on efforts to update the Commonwealth's public records law

For many people, journalism looks like the plot for The Post, the 2017 movie about the Washington Post's reporting on the leaked Pentagon Papers.

But, the Pentagon Papers weren't publicly released until 2011, even though they contained vital information about the workings of the government.

And that's why we have public records laws, which allow for private citizens, as well as journalists, to see documents that show what our government is doing.

But here's the rub. Massachusetts is one of the two least transparent states in the country when it comes to public records. Right now, the governor, for example, is exempt from the public records law - if someone requests records from that office, the administration doesn't have to hand them over. A new bill introduced by Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin aims change that.

We talk about the law and efforts to change it with Todd Wallack, Deputy Managing Editor at WBUR, and Geoff Foster, Executive Director at Common Cause Massachusetts.