Newspaper Prepares to Spam Residents, Using Public Records Request

The Charlotte Observer recently forced city officials to release a list of email addresses of residents. The paper did it through a records request. But this wasn't done for journalistic reasons but commercial ones. The paper’s Director of Strategic Products and Audience Development asked for the addresses, which is a subscriber list for city email alerts. Some official is annoyed:

"...I must let you know I am borderline outraged. I had a solid reputation while in office of complete openness as relates to media....That said, if the Charlotte Observer is going to use the law in an attempt to gather information not relevant to the public’s right to know, I fully support the elected bodies doing EVERYTHING possible up to and including stretching and interpreting the law such that you are excluded from as much information as possible. You do not have a right to information from private citizens who engage with or contact the government. When I held elected office I understood and accepted that I had freely given up much of my privacy but as a private citizen my information is sacrosanct." 

First, any member of the public, not just the media, is allowed to see public records. Yes, even the business side of a newspaper. It's the public's right to know, not the media. Second, are you telling me the city doesn't have a law or some mandate that city-sponsored subscriber emails can't be used for commercial purposes? If not, time to do that.