Transparency
-
November 04, 2009 04:01 PM
Waiting on the Shield Law
The Society of Professional Journalists has just put out a press release announcing their backing (with some reservations) of the shield law compromise worked out last week between the White House and the bill’s prime Senate sponsors. From the statement:
Although SPJ does not believe S. 448 is a perfect bill, the Society’s leaders carefully...
Continue reading -
October 30, 2009 06:38 PM
Compromise Reached on Senate Shield Law
Q&A with Newspaper Association of America's Paul Boyle
Today the prime Senate sponsors of the Free Flow of Information Act—or, as it’s commonly known, the shield bill—announced that they’d reached a compromise with the White House on the bill’s most contentious issues: who would be considered a journalist, and just how much protection journalists would get from subpoenas demanding testimony.
The compromise bill’s definition of...
Continue reading -
October 30, 2009 01:00 PM
Shield Bill Deal Reached?
The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Chuck Schumer, a prime sponsor of the Free Flow of Information Act (commonly known as the shield bill) has reached a deal with the White House on one of the bill’s most difficult sticking points: under what circumstances, and how, would the executive branch be able compel testimony from someone covered by the...
Continue reading -
October 29, 2009 05:17 PM
Guess Who?
Wash Times highlights limits of Obama visitor disclosure policy
Yesterday, The Washington Times reported some none-too-flattering revelations suggesting a pay-to-play scheme inside the Obama White House.
According to documents acquired by the Times, donors who raise more than $300,000 for Democratic campaigns are rewarded with participation in bimonthly phone calls with senior administration officials, along with occasional face to face meetings and briefings. Matthew Mosk, the article’s...
Continue reading -
October 07, 2009 06:04 PM
Do or Die for the Shield Law?
Shortly after 9:30 am tomorrow, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will take their seats in room 226 of the Dirksen building. First they’ll consider the nominations of half dozen federal judges and law enforcement officials.
And then they will get to work on the Free Flow of Information Act—a bill that could either help end unnecessary and chilling journalist...
Continue reading -
October 06, 2009 03:53 PM
How to Get on the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’s Enemies List
From Wired:
When 22-year-old programmer Aaron Swartz decided last fall to help an open-government activist amass a public and free copy of millions of federal court records, he did not expect he’d end up with an FBI agent trying to stake out his house.
As the piece goes on to describe, the FBI launched its investigation...
Continue reading -
October 02, 2009 10:12 AM
A Change That’s Hard to Believe In
Obama calls backsies on shield law
There’s a reason why people don’t trust politicians’ promises: from time to time, they go back on them.
That’s exactly what seems to be happening this week, as the Obama administration has communicated to Capitol Hill that the administration will only support the Free Flow of Information act—a bill colloquially known as the shield law—if legislators make major...
Continue reading -
October 01, 2009 01:38 PM
A win against Cheney secrecy
Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington has notched another win in its battle to preserve and expand the reach of the Freedom of Information Act. The victory comes in a complicated case seeking records related to a FBI interview voluntarily given by Vice President Cheney during special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation of l’affaire Plame/Libby.
FOIA provides an exemption allowing...
Continue reading -
October 01, 2009 11:50 AM
Obama Administration Opposing Shield Law
Disappointing news today from the New York Times’s Charlie Savage:
The Obama administration has told lawmakers that it opposes legislation that could protect reporters from being imprisoned if they refuse to disclose confidential sources who leak material about national security, according to several people involved with the negotiations.
Continue reading
The administration this week sent to Congress sweeping revisions... -
September 30, 2009 10:11 AM
FOIA Hearing Underway
Senator Patrick Leahy has just kicked off a hearing on the status of the Freedom of Information Act, which is being webcast live on the Judiciary Committee's website.
Starting off will be a two person panel, with appearances by an associate attorney general representing the Justice Department, and, I think, the first hearing appearance by Miriam...
Continue reading -
September 29, 2009 04:44 PM
Classification policy draft leaked
Secrecy watcher Steven Aftergood has obtained a draft version of the Obama administration’s new executive order tinkering with the nation’s classification system. (Downloadable here as a .pdf)
As Aftergood writes, the draft “does not represent anything like a transformation of the existing secrecy system,” though he highlights some steps that the access community would likely view...
Continue reading -
September 23, 2009 11:54 AM
A New Obama Line on State Secrets?
The New York Times and the Washington Post chime in with similar articles detailing the Obama administration’s new policy, to be announced today, on the application of the state secrets privilege.
The plan calls for increased monitoring and a more stringent review process before the Justice Department will approve requests to apply the privilege, which...
Continue reading -
September 22, 2009 03:58 PM
Redacted: WaPo’s Unprecedented Deal with the Pentagon
The McChrystal report: Who did the redacting?
This week’s news cycle seems certain to be dominated by The Washington Post’s huge scoop: its acquisition of a confidential memo, written by General Stanley McChrystal and sent to, among others, Secretary Gates and President Obama. By obtaining the highly anticipated review of the nation’s Afghanistan policy, Bob Woodward has ensured that he will shape the narrative and...
Continue reading -
September 18, 2009 04:20 PM
Pinning Down the “Jackass” Tale
A tweeted slip reveals a complicated arrangement
To be sure, the quote at hand does not address the world’s most pressing issue.
But earlier this week, when CNBC’s John Harwood asked the President about Kanye West’s usurping of Taylor Swift’s MTV Video Award win, and the leader of the free world called the stage-stealing entertainer a “jackass,” it set off an comedy of errors, manners, and journalism...
Continue reading
Special Feature
Transparency
The struggle to open up government
Stories and other material on government transparency from the Columbia Journalism Review, from the January/February print magazine with Web-only supplements.
—advertisement—
About Transparency RSS
Desks
The Audit Business
The Observatory Science
- Unscientific America Meets Denialism Mooney and Specter debate causes and cures
- Reservations about Resveratrol
Campaign Desk Politics & Policy
- Jumping to Confusion We can’t know what Fort Hood means until we know what happened
- The Price of Medical Services Is the conversation finally starting?
