Today is day six of Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of government openness and public access to public records.
Here at Mountain Xpress, we’re marking Sunshine Week with the debut of The Xpress Files, an online archive of papers from all levels of government. And each day this week, we’ll focus on one extraordinary Document of the Day.
Today’s entry is the FBI file on Charles Kuralt, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The late Kuralt was one of North Carolina’s most beloved broadcasters. A native of the Charlotte area, his career took him to multiple news and feature programs on the CBS television network.
In an early assignment, Kuralt was CBS’ correspondent in Latin America — during the early 1960s, when U.S. officials were intent on countering the influence of revolutionary Cuban leader Fidel Castro. It was that concern, it appears, that caused the FBI to open a file on Kuralt. His file would eventually grow to 10 classified pages, and also include allegations regarding his reporting on the U.S. invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965.
See the 2004 Xpress story, “Look Homeward, Big Brother,” for more details.
Click here to read the file in its entirety — through the FBI did delete some portions prior to release — and check back tomorrow for another Sunshine Week offering from The Xpress Files.
— Jon Elliston, managing editor
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