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There were three N&O reporters at the news conference. The N&O did report that Easley would ask the legislature for more authority over the mental health program, control over regional agencies and a law requiring that deaths in mental health hospitals be reported to the state medical examiner.

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THE IRONY OF ALL THIS IS THAT EASLEY HAS NOT IGNORED THE PROBLEMS of mental health reform. As The N&O series reported, Easley last year replaced the cabinet official who implemented the failed policy with a competent manager, former Raleigh City Manager Dempsey Benton. Easley's administration audited mental health spending and has demanded repayment of $59 million in excess payments. Benton has tightened regulation of community service programs. The head of the state Mental Health Division stepped down two days before publication of the N&O series -- which state officials knew about in advance.

My guess is that the governor could have avoided all the bad press if he had simply accepted a share of responsibility -- he has been quick to blame the legislature -- said he was addressing the problem and made himself fully accountable to the public by responding to reporters' questions.

Jean Folkerts, dean of the journalism school at UNC-Chapel Hill, said she thought the coverage has been appropriate: "I think holding the governor's feet to the fire -- especially when the coverage seems to show a discrepancy between what he's saying now and what the documents show -- is not a problem." She said she'd like to see more stories digging into who, if not the governor, was behind mental health reform. "I do think a follow-up story would be to follow up on who pushed it and why and what the experience had been elsewhere," she said.

I had a couple of problems with the coverage. I'm uneasy any time a newspaper inserts itself into a story, as The N&O did in publishing a five-column picture of its faked-out reporters and photographer staking out the governor's vehicle. I didn't think the story asking PR guys about the governor's press relations was worth the front page. It seemed like piling on.

But the newspaper is absolutely correct to press the issue on possible destruction of e-mail correspondence. Those are records owned by the citizens, not the governor, and the paper is acting in the public interest in demanding access to them.

Most importantly, The N&O is dead-on right in shining a spotlight on the governor's responsibility for the failed mental health program. Citizens expect the press to hold public officials accountable for their performance in office, and The N&O can't be too aggressive in fulfilling that responsibility.

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