"All agencies should adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure"
March 10, 2016 3:31 AM   Subscribe

 
Incidentally this seems to be one of the rare times where "reform" in American politics is used in its traditional sense, of strengthening a law's ability to fulfill its intent, rather than the opposite.
posted by ardgedee at 4:00 AM on March 10, 2016 [2 favorites]


I remember reading an op-ed—which I can no longer find, unfortunately—by a government staffer defending Clinton's use of a private e-mail server. Of course she kept her own server, this person's argument went; she wanted to keep access to her own correspondence after she left office, a reasonable thing to want. Then the author went on to acknowledge that, yes, she could have used official servers and requested her own e-mails via FOIA, but no one in government would ever do that, because they all know that FOIA requestors are awful and waste everyone's time. It was a statement that was very revealing of the way in which transparency is really seen by those in power.
posted by enn at 7:44 AM on March 10, 2016 [5 favorites]


This is an excellent article, thanks for bringing it!
posted by corb at 9:48 AM on March 10, 2016


This is a fantastic article. Thanks for posting it.

One of the most disappointing things about Obama, and presumably Clinton's continuation of that policy, is the absolutely bullshit anti-transparency hypocrisy. FOIA laws are one of our strongest defenses against governmental abuses, and that our government works explicitly against our public interest in that is deeply shameful.
posted by klangklangston at 11:58 AM on March 10, 2016 [7 favorites]






And I have to admit getting all ; _ ; realizing that whomever succeeds Obama, whether Trump or Clinton, will almost certainly be worse for FOIA.
posted by klangklangston at 10:26 AM on March 17, 2016 [3 favorites]


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