If the Presidential Records Act makes IM and Blackberries impossible because it means even the most casual and speculative conversations will be included in future records, then the thing to do is not rip instant messaging -- and all its rapid efficiencies -- out of the White House, but to try and modernize the Presidential Records Act. The PRA, after all, was passed in 1978. There was no IM. No e-mail. No blackberries or text messaging. The bill needs to be rebuilt and the treatment of these technologies thought through specifically, rather than decided by language never meant to apply to them. It may be that you want to treat IM and e-mail as "writing," and have them included in the five-year document release. Or it may be that you want to judge IM as "talking," make sure no computers at the White House keep logs, and excuse it from the document release. But either way, intra-White House communication is important. It's the sort of thing that should be thought through specifically, not decided by the accidental implications of aging legislative language.
