Keeping the actions of government open to public scrutiny is a serious matter, but the subject turned a little humorous in Washington not long ago.
A number of organizations that promote government transparency – organizations such as the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press – decided to present an honor to President Barack Obama for what they viewed as his commitment to doing the public’s business in public view.
But on the day of the awards ceremony, the Obama administration made an ironic decision: It forbade the news media and the general public to have access to the event at which the honor would be presented.
So the president accepted an award for supposedly making government more open to the public, but the public was kept out!
“The White House didn’t immediately comment … on the apparent discrepancy between the honor and the circumstances under which it was awarded,” The Associated Press reported.
We may chuckle over such miscues, but unfortunately we need not look any further than Tennessee to find attempts to do far more important government business without public and media scrutiny.
Elected officials in Chattanooga and East Ridge want the Tennessee General Assembly to let them pull their legal ads – notices of important government actions and meetings – out of the Times Free Press and place them on little-read government websites. In addition, a move is afoot to let government agencies in the state charge “actual labor costs” if it takes them more than one hour to comply with a request for public records.
Both legislative efforts are attempts to reduce government transparency.
Both should be defeated.