Listening to an NPR show today, and this was the topic.
Remember when Obama said his would be the most transparent administration in history ?
Report: Obama often blocks press access to information
Roger Yu, USA TODAY
More: Report: Obama often blocks press access to information
Remember when Obama said his would be the most transparent administration in history ?
Report: Obama often blocks press access to information
Roger Yu, USA TODAY
Despite President Obama's promises of transparency, the White House blocks routine information for reporters, seeks aggressive prosecution of classified information leakers and uses its own media channels to shape its messaging, according to a scathing new*report*by the Committee to Protect Journalists."" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: bottom; ">Authored by former*Washington Post*executive editor Leonard Downie Jr., the report portrays an administration gripped by strict policies about information flow and paranoid about leaks across all executive branch departments."This is the most closed, control freak administration I've ever covered," David E. Sanger, chief Washington correspondent of*The New York Times, told Downie, who now teaches journalism at Arizona State University.REM RIEDER:*Obama should widen access to mediaThe administration has implemented an "Insider Threat Program" in all government departments to urge federal employees to monitor their colleagues for possible unauthorized information disclosures. Administration employees suspected of leaking classified information are given lie-detector tests and subject to reviews of their telephone and e-mail records, wrote Downie, who was assisted in reporting by Sara Rafsky.The report is the latest in a series of portrayals by journalists and media critics of a president whose rigid public relations practices belie his earlier promises of change and open access to public information.Such accusations had been mounting prior to the series of stories about widespread surveillance of telephone calls and e-mail in the U.S. by the National Security Agency, made possible by internal documents that were leaked by former government contractor Edward Snowden.Since 2009, six government employees have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions in the leak of classified information to the press, vs. a total of three in all previous U.S. administrations, the report noted.The White House disputed the report's characterizations and pointed out to Downie that the number of interviews Obama granted in his first four-plus years including the ones made available to digital media and TV entertainment outlets, such as*The Tonight Show* exceeds the combined total of former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.The administration has also put more government data online and worked to speed up processing of Freedom of Information Act requests. "The idea that people are shutting up and not leaking to reporters is belied by the facts," Jay Carney, Obama's press secretary, told Downie.
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