The Washington Monthly's Monthly Journalism Award April 2003
Adam Clymer
"Government Openness at Issue as Bush Holds On to Records"
The New York Times, January 3, 2003
The Bush administration's more egregious efforts to shield
government records and proceedings in secrecy--most notably,
Vice President Cheney's energy task force records--have
received ample attention from journalists. Clymer delves
into some of the administration's less publicized efforts
to limit public disclosures, such as its attempts to
undercut the Freedom of Information Act and classify more
documents. Clymer traces Bush's reluctance to release
government records to the public back to his days as
governor of Texas, and carefully lays out the case for why
such secrecy raises grave problems, concluding that
"secrecy does more harm than good."
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