CJR Campaign Desk: Archives
The Secrets War

“A huge door is closing within our government,” Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists, recently told the Federal Times. “The message is: ‘We don’t want you talking to anybody outside of government.'”

As the Bush administration prepares to begin its second term, much has been written about the president’s intolerance for dissent or even raised eyebrows among those closest to him. Less attention, however, has been paid to efforts by the White House to restrict access to vast amounts of information and to create an atmosphere in which secrecy is rewarded and criticism silenced.

This is the type of story — a gradual erosion instead of a single, headline-grabbing event — that most in the press tend to overlook. Yet in the coverage of government, it may be the most significant event of all. …

Elsewhere in the federal bureaucracy, the cloak of secrecy is spreading rapidly under the guise of enhancing national security. In the aftermath of 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft sharply restricted information available under the Freedom of Information Act, an invaluable tool for journalists probing the activities of government and government employees. …

But the secrets guarded by those in Washington don’t only involve Star Wars programs run amok, or abuses of civil rights in a time of war, or poor management of an agency vital to national security. Denial of access to information of all sorts is growing “at an epidemic rate,” according to Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley.

Secrecy — and the conflicts of interest that it promotes — clouds the decision-making process of government in issues as diverse as medical guidance to the nation’s physicians and the acquisition of aircraft. And those are just the instances that have come to light in recent days.

It’s the media’s job to push back on that closing door. The rewards will go far beyond a wealth of great stories.

–Susan Q. Stranahan