I run a little Facebook page where I regularly write about things political and media. As part of that work, I have on multiple occasions made public-records requests under the Colorado Open Records Act, or “CORA.” I have worked with others on their requests and helped neophytes learn how to do their own.

I’ve CORA’d far and wide: I’ve checked in at local and state level offices, executive and legislative offices, school districts and police departments. I believe ordinary citizens like myself have a part to play in looking through government records and holding public servants accountable; what your public servants do with your money is not just for lawyers and journalists. That’s one reason why I was disappointed at recent events.

A local television personality recently won a court case that allowed him to get the name of a CORA requester who had, at the instigation of the school board itself, withdrawn his request prior to its fulfillment. This same television personality then splashed the name of this individual all over his show.

What this television personality did is perfectly legal. I’m not alleging otherwise. Not only did he win his court case (which decided the novel facts in this case — namely, that you can get the name of a CORA requester after they withdraw their request), it’s also well known that CORA requests themselves are public record. In fact, I myself have done CORA requests for other CORA requests because they can be a big aid in your search. They help you figure out whom to include in future requests, and they also show you where reporters are sniffing around in search of a story.

I am more concerned with the question of whether pursuing and disclosing the requester’s identity in this case was right — whether it was decent or fair. I do not believe it was. If you sit down for a second and think about it, the power differential and implications here make this something we should condemn.

Put aside the question of whether or not you agree with any given CORA request. If someone were “in the game” — meaning professionals like journalists or politicos — there ought to be little in the way of an expectation of privacy. In the same vein as the higher standard for defamation of public figures, if you’re going to dance you better be ready to pay the band. Were what happened here a case of a pro getting called out, I wouldn’t care. It’s not, however.

For private citizens the case is different. I personally have never written a CORA request I am ashamed of or unwilling to share with anyone else, but, much to my mother’s, and my wife’s, chagrin, my personality is such that I don’t mind too much what others think. I don’t plan to self-censor with regard to what I investigate, but I recognize how unusual I am in this respect. There are those that might think twice about asking for information from, and about, those who use their tax money if they know that they’ll be splashed all over the airwaves. This is not a good thing.

Yes, CORA requests themselves should still be public records. I’m not arguing for a change in law. I am arguing that if a private citizen who wanted legal public information on what their public servants were up to, and someone with more fame disagreed, it’s not right or fair for them to call out the CORA requester.

This is particularly the case if the request was withdrawn. The person with more access to the public may have the right to pillory them, but they can’t do it and still call themselves fair or decent. I am also arguing that the actions of this well-known local television personality could have a chilling effect on everyday people’s access to their government. Do we want that?

This is not a victory for the fourth estate or fans of freedom of information in the same way publishing a public figure’s actions would be. This, intended or not, smacks of mean and petty payback, of punching someone who lacks the ability to punch you back as hard as you hit them. Maybe it’s legal, maybe we have more arcane trivia to add to our common law now, but don’t lose sight of what happened. A big name from television used his time and the ample resources of his employer to seek out the name of a private citizen who made and withdrew a CORA request.

Finding that avenue blocked, he then took the denial to court. All so he could put this person’s name on his show. Not fair, not decent, and not right.

Cory Gaines is a physics instructor at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling. He runs the Colorado Accountability Project on Facebook and lives for what Richard P. Feynman called “the pleasure of finding things out.”