One of the most powerful tools in Journalism might be eliminated.
As part of the new budget, Gov. Jerry Brown appears ready to sign a bill that would effectively eliminate the state's public records act. The bill would make it nearly impossible for new organizations -- like NBC Bay Area -- to uncover corruption and other crimes by public agencies.
NBC Bay Area spoke to two groups -- teenagers who want to be journalists, and teenagers who wants to be able to tell the difference between good journalism and bad journalism -- to get their thoughts on the proposed bill. View what they had to say in Damian Trujillo's report in the video above.
UPDATE: Since this report aired, Assembly Speaker John Perez has announced that the Assembly will vote Thursday on a new version of California's budget bill that will maintain the state's open records law.
