FANTASTIC editorial: Sunshine Sunday

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/12/Opinion/Sunshine_Sunday.shtml

This is a day to remember the value of government transparency, which is vital in these times when the administration in Washington and the legislators in Tallahassee have been striving to keep the public and press in the dark.

A Times Editorial
Published March 12, 2006

<snip>
With a rollover Congress that appears more interested in justifying the president's questionable assertions of executive power than in investigating them, the role of the press has become even more vital to ensuring government accountability.

Were it not for dogged reporting by journalists at some of this nation's leading newspapers, we would not know, for example, that President Bush authorized warrantless wiretapping of people in this country or that the CIA maintained secret prisons in Eastern Europe where terror suspects were sent for interrogation and torture.

On this Sunshine Sunday, a day when news outlets around the country remind the public of the value of government transparency, the issue of official secrecy takes on an even greater sense of urgency than in past years. The Bush administration, the most secretive since Richard Nixon was in the White House, is engaged in a broad assault on freedom of information.

<snip>
When government operates in the open it is far more likely to act in the public interest than on behalf of special interests. Sunshine Sunday recognizes that a transparent government is an accountable one and citizens who are kept informed are more likely to make responsible choices at the polls.

...I wish I could snip more, I highly recommend this article.

Dear Sirs:

While I concur wholeheartedly with both the premise and specifics of the above editorial, I must note my exception to your reference in the second paragraph to the "dogged reporting" by "leading newspapers" that brought both the President's illegal NSA spying and the CIA's prisoner renditions to light.

If memory serves, and it may well not in this case, was the CIA rendition program not initially reported by The New Yorker?

More importantly, and more within my realm of knowledge, though, is the eventual reporting on the NSA program. This was a story that was held for about a year by The New York Times before its ultimate release. They had the information, which had been leaked to them, yet failed to diligently pursue the matter until late in 2005. When asked by the Bush administration to suppress the story, the Times obliged. In the interim, we had this little thing called a presidential election in which it's reasonable to assume that this story might have had some deleterious effect on Bush's electoral fortunes.

Best,
.............

in the Pasco section.

Let's hope yours get in.