Carl Malamud, Public Printer You may have never heard of the Government Printing Office, a massive bureaucracy thatâs responsible for disseminatingâvia the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, and the Federal Depository Library Programâmassive amounts of information about the operations of our government. On the promise to make more data available online, Carl Malamud, a long-time aggressive open standards and open government activist, waged a full throated and fully unconventional campaign to earn Obamaâs appointment to run the agency. Alas, Malamudâs now quieted push seems to have been ineffective: a Bush holdover remains in the position.
Dover, Behind the Scenes After eighteen years of extremely limited access to the ceremonies marking the return of deceased service members, on April 6 the Pentagon enacted a new policy that allowed reporters and cameras on the flight line at Dover Air Force Base. While the soldierâs next of kin must consent to the coverage, Americans routinely have a chance to see some of our warsâ human toll.
Mark Mahoney, Open Government Wrecking Ball When the Pulitzer Prizes get announced each spring, the big hauls usually go to the big names at the big papers. Mark Mahoney, editorialist for the Glens Falls, New York based Post-Star (circulation: 34,000), was a happy exception this past May. His straight shooting writing encouraging readers to take records access into their own hands and shaming the hyper-local government officials who sometimes thwart them won the judgesâ attention.
Pinning Down The Jackass Tale Learning that President Obama thinks Kanye West is a jackass was not the most pressing issue of the year. But when an errant tweet exposed Obamaâs pre-interview remarkâone that his questioner said he considered to be âoff the recordâ by âcustomââit raised the question of what might happen if, next time, the President let something more substantive slip.
Redacted: The Washington Postâs Unprecedented Deal with The Pentagon When Bob Woodward published General Stanley McChrystalâs memo recommending a major troop increase in Afghanistan, it reset the nationâs discussion as Obama weighed a new war plan. Lost was the paperâs odd decision not to publish the original version of the document, and instead, after discussions with the Department of Defense, publish a new version exclusively redacted by the Pentagon for the Post to publicly release.
Bomb Squad Rampartsâthe high-flying, quick-burning, left-punching glossy magazine of the 1960s and â70sâearned its first book length historical treatment in 2009. Within it? Rollicking tales of New Left-collapse, CIA lawbreaking, and staff drama. Also: Jann Wenner insults, gun wielding Panthers, and a masturbating monkey.
