Judge Rules Newark Must Produce Facebook Donation E-Mails

According to a story in today's Star-Ledger of Newark, a Superior Court judge ruled earlier today that the city of Newark produce e-mail correspondence related to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to the New Jersey city. The suit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of an organization called the Secondary Parents Council, had its genesis in the intransigence of Newark mayor Cory Booker's administration toward requests for the correspondence. Booker's team was an equal opportunity snubber, as it refused information requests regarding the Facebook largesse from The Star-Ledger and the Associated Press.

At issue is how local residents have been excluded from having any insight or say into the distribution and use of Zuckerberg's donation. For all the flapdoodle about how the money would help Newark schools and the community, the management of the funds has been extraordinarily secretive.

Keep in mind Facebook's wunderkind's highly publicized contribution came as the film The Social Contract, with its highly unflattering portrait of Zuckerberg, was released. Some saw the donation as intended to distract the public from awareness of the Facebook creator's unseemly personality. It also was tied into the politically motivated restructuring of Newark's schools and the emasculation of the city's teacher's union. However, to believe the unlikely quartet of Zuckerberg, Booker, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and Oprah Winfrey, the donation was all about education, opportunity, and community. For more on this topic, you're welcome to explore my three-part blog post about it.

Too bad no one bothered to ask the city's residents their opinion on the matter.