Elkins: 'I'm not afraid of change'

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An Austin resident since 1981, Elkins has been a newsman his entire adult life, except for about 10 years, during which time he did stints as communications director for the state comptroller's office and the state lottery commission.

“I’ve been on both sides," he said. "I know what it’s like, asking for information from governmental agencies, and I know what it’s like being inside governmental agencies, dealing with people that either want to give out the information or don’t want to give out the information.

"So, this is kind of a perfect opportunity for me, heading up the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas -- because I think that not only do I understand how important it is for citizens to be able to access information that their government wants or has, but now, especially, with so many journalistic organizations suffering economic problems, I think that the role of serving as a watchdog of governmental agencies is probably going to fall more on the shoulders of citizens who may or may not know how to access their government or understand when their government is trying to prevent them from getting information that they are legally entitled to receive.”

His decision to be a journalist -- and not a music teacher, as was his original plan -- was made one night over dinner when he saw newsman Walter Cronkite on TV. But even Cronkite himself could not have foreseen the changes that have come along in journalism, with many journalistic institutions now in freefall due to the economy and the Internet revolution.

"I’m encouraged by what’s happening, actually, in some ways," Elkins said. He's tried to offer reassurance about the future to his daughter, a student at the University of Texas studying both journalism and fashion design. "I’m not afraid of change. And I’m not afraid of the Web. I think that people have to be careful -- you can’t believe everything online any more than you can believe everything" published anywhere. "I think that’s where the advocacy of organizations like FOIFT come in."

Hear more from new FOIFT executive director Keith Elkins, including more about his thoughts on criminal expungements, his vision for FOIFT (and find out what instrument he played in high school and college band). Click here to download the MP3 audio of most of our interview with him -- it's a 12-megabyte file, with about 27 or so minutes of audio.

Looking for FOIFT online? Check out its home page, its Facebook page, its blog and its Twitter page. If you're on the delicious.com social bookmarking site, look for all these pages (and others) that we've tagged with the keywords FOIFT and KeithElkins. And to see more videos of Texas FOI advocates testifying in opposition to legislation that would limit open records laws, check out Texas Watchdog's YouTube channel (our username is texaswatchdog).

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	Jose Guzman Thursday, 04/23/2009 - 03:25PM Director K. Elkins, Thank you for what you have done in a very short time. Mayor White is just the top of a very large iceberg, have further discovery jaunts into his obamaish "ways and means" committees.
	Lee Ann O'Neal Thursday, 04/23/2009 - 04:48PM Dear Jose Guzman, Welcome to our site, and thank you for commenting! Take care, Lee Ann leeann@texaswatchdog.org