Kavitha Cardoza, my colleague at WAMU 88.5 FM and one of the best reporters I know, was snubbed by DC's Mayor Adrian Fenty when she asked him to explain his answer to her question.

More reporters, including myself, should be more like Cardoza. It's our job to find out what public officials actually mean when they give us blanket statements such as the one Mayor Fenty gave Cardoza.

The City Paper's Mike DeBonis sums it up nicely on his blog.

Kudos to commenter “al gonzales” for pointing this out.

Yesterday, WAMU-FM reporter Kavitha Cardoza did a piece [Windows Media/RealPlayer] on the DCPS budget hearing held Tuesday, which was announced only six days ahead of time and which only “about a dozen” persons reportedly attended.

Kind of a boring piece, with requisite outrage from veteran activists Mary Levy and Margot Berkey—until Cardoza put Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on the spot about the short notice.

His verbatim reply, if you can call it that: “Yeah, I think the person who said it right is that we’re providing an information in real time probably summed it up best.”

A typical content-free response from Fenty, sure, but that isn’t even a sentence, far as LL can parse. Replied Cardoza, “What does that—I don’t understand what that means.”

Said Fenty, “I can’t translate. All I can give you is a response to your question.”

In that case, we’re all still waiting.