Transparency in the Oval Office

[zoogs]

Josh Earnest wants the NYT to give Obama credit for transparency. He makes a paper-thin case.

 

(a.k.a -- Hot takes you won't get from the mainstream liberal media? )

 

I get that Obama has earnestly tried to run a more transparent administration than he has to. He's an open, lucid communicator and welcomes the role of important national discussion.

 

He also has overseen a record rate of whistle-blower prosecution and defends the use of secret courts to oversee drone killings. Rather than roll back the expanding security state, he's entrenched it. So reporters on planes, that's nice...But it certain seems like (as always), defensiveness and lack of introspection are really getting in the way. Even Obama isn't immune to these faults.

 

[84HuskerLaw]

Transparency for this Obama bunch? LOL Latest news coming out now is Obama directly and blatantly lied repeatedly about the Iran Nuke deal, telling multple lies about its contents and purposes and terms and Iran's active compliance. This is National Security deception and borders on treasonous action. They are still 'releasing' emails from 2012 Hillary Clinton activities and claim they need another 2 years to review and release more! Good grief: we all know they review and monitor the actions of high office public officials each day as they are going by. No reason to require 4 or more years to review the emails of one employee. They have tens of thousands of do nothing 'employees' that could look through the entire 4 years of communications in a couple weeks.

[zoogs]

You must hate Reagan.

[TGHusker]

Or as Mark Levin calls him, Josh "not so earnest' Earnest is standing on thin ice as is normally the case wt his explanations. I don't think this admin as been that transparent and I think it starts way back with the

'you can keep your doctor' promise. Is it better than previous adminstrations - that is up for debate. But we were promised the most transparent administration in history. When someone says they will provide the most of any thing in history, or are the 'only one who can fix it (Trump)' be prepared for the opposite.

 

Views from the left:

 

Huffington post articles on transparency.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/obama-transparency/

 

Washington Post

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/obama-promised-transparency-but-his-administration-is-one-of-the-most-secretive/2016/05/24/5a46caba-21c1-11e6-9e7f-57890b612299_story.html

“It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about,” President Obama said during his recent Rutgers University commencement address. It was a swipe clearly intended for he-who-didn’t-need-to-be-named: Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president.

Okay, no argument there.

But the Obama administration itself has been part of a different know-nothing problem. It has kept the news media — and therefore the public — in the dark far too much over the past 7 1/2 years.

After early promises to be the most transparent administration in history, this has been one of the most secretive. And in certain ways, one of the most elusive. It’s also been one of the most punitive toward whistleblowers and leakers who want to bring light to wrongdoing they have observed from inside powerful institutions.....

Meanwhile, the most transparent administration in history continues doing transparency its own way.

[knapplc]

Obama ran on a platform of transparency. He has reneged on that promise BIG-TIME. Perhaps one of the biggest campaign lies in recent presidential politics.

[TGHusker]

Some more on this topic

http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/eric-scheiner/wh-administration-prided-itself-transparency-has-record-foia-censorship

 

the Associated Press reports 77% of Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests are censored or completely denied.

 

In March of 2016 an Associated Press analysis of government data concluded, “the Obama administration set a record for the number of times its federal employees told disappointed citizens, journalists and others that despite searching they couldn't find a single page requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).”

 

 

This one poster at the end of the article may have it about right:

Obama promised to have a transparent administration for his tenure as president. The facts are that his administration has been the exact antithesis of his promises. From the AG to the FBI, CIA, NSA, HS, DOS, DOD, and IRS, his administration is deeply veiled in secrecy, deception, corruption, lies, most hidden, clandestine, and civil liberties oppressing administration in our history (according to Andrew O’Hehir, popular media correspondent). The so called leaders of these government agencies collectively have Obama’s blessing to operate the way they do with no accountability, or fear of prosecution