Editorial: Congress must address Obama’s secrecy

The Des Moines Register
January 12, 2016
By: The Register’s Editorial

Eighty years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland said that “an informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment.”

It was true then, and it’s true today. Nothing is more threatening to a democracy than a government that operates in secrecy.

That’s what makes the Obama administration’s stubborn refusal to uphold the principles of open government not just discouraging, but dangerous. In the Obama administration, federal agencies that supposedly work for the people have repeatedly shown themselves to be flat-out unwilling to comply with the most basic requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

Requests for information that should be fulfilled with a single phone conversation are instead met with resistance. Some agencies require the filing of formal, written requests to see records the agencies themselves are publicizing in press releases. Others refuse to even entertain questions from the public or the media unless it’s in the form of a FOIA request for specific documents.

At some federal agencies, FOIA requests are simply ignored, despite statutory deadlines for responses. Requesters are often forced to wait months or years for a response, only to be denied access and be told they have just 14 days to file an appeal.

Other administrations have engaged in these same practices, but Obama’s penchant for secrecy is almost unparalleled in recent history. Only Richard Nixon, whose offenses in office were so egregious they earned him the designation of “unindicted co-conspirator,” seemed more determined to control, and distort, the public’s perception of his administration.

In 2014, 38 journalism organizations sent an unprecedented letter to the president criticizing his administration for pursuing a strategy of “politically driven suppression of the news.” The Society of Professional Journalists and others complained that even as the administration obstructed the press, it greased the wheels for lobbyists and “people with money” to be given special access to information.

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