Navigating Openness

The New York Times has a useful story out today that parses a number of decisions the Obama administration's made as it attempts to live up to--or backs away from--the campaign's promises to run a more open government.

He has bumped up against technological hurdles, privacy concerns and the entrenched culture of secrecy that has flourished for decades in Washington and culminated under his predecessor, President George W. Bush. Mr. Obama has vowed a break with the past, but he has not broken completely.

Press briefings by “senior administration officials” who demand anonymity, a standard feature of the Bush administration, are also commonplace in the Obama White House. Mr. Obama recently infuriated advocates of open government by asserting his right to restrict communications between federal workers and Congress. And while he has promised to be more forthcoming about his schedule, some meetings â€" like the time he dropped by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s office to see Mikhail S. Gorbachev â€" remain undisclosed.

“The administration is showing wonderful potential, but so far it is only potential,” said Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning research organization. “Being transparent is politically tough. The habit in D.C. is to hold information as tightly as you can because information is power.”

I know the anonymous briefings are deeply annoying to a lot of the journalists I know, in particular because there rarely seems to be a good reason for requesting anonymity. I'm more sympathetic to the technological hurdles the administration is facing in terms of upgrading agencies' capabilities so they can stream meetings live or post large amounts of documents quickly. It'll take time to get the physical plant of transparency in place. But it doesn't take resources to affirm support for whistleblower rights, or for that matter to appoint a Special Counsel who is committed to protecting employees' rights. The Obama administration should move on both items as quickly as possible.